How it works

From AIS signal to dock intelligence

Every ship broadcasts its position. Docktraffic turns that raw stream into a clear, factual answer: who called at your dock, what they did, and what they moved.

The pipeline

Six stages, fully automatic

Once a point of interest is set up, everything below runs automatically without manual work.

01

Geofence the dock

Draw a boundary around a berth, terminal or anchorage to create a point of interest.

02

Ingest AIS data

We pull fresh and historical vessel positions from premium maritime data, updated every day.

03

Derive the visit

Positions are grouped into discrete port calls, with arrival and departure detected from gaps.

04

Detect the operation

Navigational status and draught change reveal loading, unloading or waiting.

05

Estimate cargo & material

Vessel size gives a tonnage estimate; dock context infers the likely commodity.

06

Alert & report

Unusual origins and watchlist events are pushed to your inbox and dashboard.

Stage 1 · Geofence & ingest

Draw a boundary, and the dock comes alive

A point of interest is a precise polygon around the water you care about. From the moment it's created, every AIS position inside it is captured, refreshed daily and backfilled from history.

  • Precise, spatial geofences, not just a radius
  • Daily updates and historical positions in one place
  • Per-day coverage tracking for a complete record
POI1
🚢 Ship Journey · 16 POI visits
Loading Discharging Tracked POI
Stage 2 · Detect the operation

Draught tells you what a stop really was

Grouped positions become a port call. Then the vessel's draught over that stay, meaning how deep it sits in the water, combined with its navigational status, reveals whether it loaded, unloaded or simply waited.

  • Arrival and departure from position gaps
  • Draught change → loading vs unloading
  • Moored vs anchored → operation vs waiting
Draught during stay
MV Helena K · 18h alongside
+2.6 m → LOADING
arrival 5.2 mdeparture 7.8 m
Stage 3 · Estimate & alert

Turn a movement into tonnage and material

With the operation known, Docktraffic estimates how much cargo moved from the vessel's size and infers the likely material from the dock's profile, then flags anything unusual.

  • Deadweight-based tonnage with confidence
  • Likely commodity per visit
  • Unusual-origin and watchlist alerts
MV Helena K
IMO 9456123 · Cement Carrier
DISCHARGING
6,120 t
Estimated cargo moved
Cargo capacity 7,480 tHIGH
↑ Materials · Loading
  • clinker48%
  • cement26%
  • GGBFS18%
  • GBFS8%
Total: 57,804 tons
Unusual Ship Origin Detected2 hours ago

Vessel MV Helena K (MMSI: 244660323) arrived at Ghent cement plant from unusual origin Antwerp. Usually comes from: Rotterdam or Duisburg.

Click to view details
Questions

How the intelligence holds up

Docktraffic is built on AIS, the same signals ships broadcast for safety, sourced from premium maritime data providers with daily updates and deep historical coverage. No hardware or installation is needed on your side.

Data is refreshed daily. A dock’s activity typically appears in your dashboard within about a day, together with the full history before it. Docktraffic is built for decisions that rely on facts and trends, not on second-by-second vessel chasing.

We look at how the vessel behaves during its stay: its navigational status (moored, at anchor) and the change in its draught. A vessel that sits deeper as it leaves has taken on cargo; lighter means it discharged. We combine these signals into a single operation call with a confidence level.

Tonnage is estimated from the vessel’s deadweight and dimensions, so every estimate carries a transparent confidence rating rather than a false-precision number. It is designed to tell you the scale and direction of a movement reliably, not to replace a weighbridge.

Yes. You can scan any public dock for public AIS signals. Geofence the berths you care about and Docktraffic records the activity there, subject to your subscription.

Want to see it on your dock?

Pick a berth to watch and follow the pipeline end to end.