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Mandatory reporting

Frequently Asked Questions

A seagoing vessel wishing to put into the port of Delfzijl or Eemshaven is obliged to report this to the Nautical Service Centre at least twenty-four hours prior to its arrival.

On 1 January 2020, the last exemptions from electronic mandatory reporting for seagoing vessels for visits to Groningen Seaports will come to an end. This is particularly important for the fishery segment that is not yet subject to national mandatory reporting. Seagoing vessels that have so far been able to enter and leave our ports without prior electronic reporting must now take measures to comply with the reporting requirement. They can use a shipping agency for this purpose, but other parties can also fulfil this role.

Reports must be submitted via Portbase PCS. Companies that do not yet have access to that system for submitting reports to Groningen Seaports, but would like to submit the reports themselves must register with Portbase.

The party submitting reports to Groningen Seaports via Portbase PCS does not pay charges. The reports can be made electronically with Port Community System Portbase.

Port Community Systeem Portbase

Frequently Asked Questions

Seagoing vessels are required to submit electronic reports under various European regulations and directives, Dutch laws, decrees and ministerial regulations and under the Port Management Ordinance and the Port Ordinance of the Gemeenschappelijke Regeling Havenschap Groningen Seaports (‘Joint arrangement port authority Groningen Seaports’).

Port Community Systeem Portbase

Mandatory reporting to the Harbour Master of Groningen Seaports under national and European regulations applies to all berths in Eemshaven, Delfzijl, Farmsum, and Appingedam. Mandatory reporting under the Port Management Ordinance applies to the management area of the Gemeenschappelijke Regeling Havenschap Groningen Seaports (‘Joint arrangement port authority Groningen Seaports’) in Eemshaven, Delfzijl, and Farmsum.

Mandatory reporting at Groningen Seaports applies to all seagoing vessels, regardless of their size or type. Exemptions that may apply in other ports do not apply at Groningen Seaports.

The content of the report varies depending on the situation. Various sections of the regulations may apply. In general, details of all ship movements should be reported. There are certain activities that have to be reported, such as the transshipment and transit of hazardous substances and the delivery of waste. See the official rules on our website for details.

Various timelines apply depending on the situation. As a rule, reports are submitted 72 and 24 hours before the estimated time of arrival, three hours before the estimated time of departure, and three hours for ship movements within and between ports. See the official rules on our website for details.

The Harbour Master of Groningen Seaports is responsible for the safety and efficiency of ship visits to the ports. The port authority uses a special information system to supervise and monitor vessels in the port and their intended movements and operations. Visits by seagoing vessels can only be registered with compulsory electronic reporting by or on behalf of the vessel. Without this registration, security could be compromised and other port users could suffer operational consequences.

The information requirements of other authorities involved in a ship visit are also important. Depending on the vessel and its operations during the visit, the report to the Harbour Master is shared with border control, Customs, the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate, NCA SafeSeaNet, and EMSA. Service providers in the port, including pilots, also have limited access to the relevant reports for their operational planning of services for the vessel.

Seagoing vessels that fail to submit an electronic report on time will not be admitted to the ports of Groningen Seaports in Eemshaven, Delfzijl, and Farmsum.

Compliance with mandatory reporting is a precondition for being granted access to the ports. However, the receipt of a visit report does not guarantee that the visit can take place or that the requested berth will be available. The intended visit will be taken into account, but final decisions will be taken depending on the local conditions on arrival.
When a request to visit a port is considered, the timeliness and quality of the vessel’s reports will be taken into account if space and capacity are limited.

Submitting a report is essentially one-way traffic. Submitting a report does not form a contract. Nor is it an alternative to applying for any necessary permit.

To calculate port dues, berth dues, charges and administration costs for the collection of ship-generated waste, a port-dues declaration must be submitted at the end of the visit. See the general terms and conditions of Groningen Seaports NV:

https://www.groningen-seaports.com/scheepvaart/regelgeving-en-formulieren/havenverordening/

Mandatory reporting and the port-dues declaration requirement are formally separate, but Groningen Seaports uses data from the advance report as the basis for the subsequent port-dues declaration, supplemented by its own observations, in order to limit the vessel’s administrative burden. The port-dues declaration itself is only a small addition. If the port-dues declaration is not received on time, the obligations will be estimated in accordance with the general terms and conditions and possibly increased by a penalty.

Strictly speaking, there have been no exceptions since 2014, but a lenient approach was taken in the transitional phase following the introduction of electronic mandatory reporting. This applied to a decreasing number of vessels, which was eventually limited almost exclusively to fishing vessels. Another reason is that Groningen Seaports temporarily processed the reports in an old information system on behalf of the captains of these vessels. The service of an external party that provides this system to Groningen Seaports ends on 31 December 2019.

Groningen Seaports pays for the reports to the Harbour Master that are submitted via the Portbase PCS website. The operator of a seagoing vessel pays for the effort of the party submitting the reports. Shipping agencies that provide this service charge their own commercial rates. Reports to other parties via Portbase PCS are paid for by the reporting party or the other recipient of those reports.

For most visits by seagoing vessels, the electronic reports are submitted by specialists employed by shipping agencies. They are familiar with the regulations and the systems used and monitor changes to them. See the Nautical Directory for a list of shipping agencies. However, this role can be fulfilled by any company in the EU whose employees speak both Dutch and English. For simple ship visits, such as those of most fishing vessels, the bar is relatively low (see the Dutch website for details).

Reports are submitted on the Portbase PCS website. You will need internet access with sufficient bandwidth.

To submit electronic reports to Groningen Seaports, you must be registered as a shipping agency with the Harbour Master and with Portbase (This is about fulfilling the role. Your company does not have to be or be called a shipping agency). For this purpose you can contact Groningen Seaports for an agent code, Operational maritime affairs). You can then register with Portbase as a new agency or as a new reporting party at Groningen Seaports if you are already an agency registered in Portbase for services in other ports. These one-off administrative processes take a few working days

Only the party that submitted the reports for a ship visit can submit the port-dues declaration for that visit. Most of the declarations are therefore made by specialists at shipping agencies. Registering as an agency at Groningen Seaports (see above) gives you access to the port-dues declaration system.

Declarations are submitted on the website of NHIS, the Groningen Seaports port management system. You will need internet access with sufficient bandwidth.

For more information about mandatory reporting and the reporting procedure, please contact Operations,  Operational maritime affairs