Image source: Visual China
At 9 o'clock on July 11, anchored on the deck of the Singaporean "Moatize" ship in Shengsi Majishan Port, Huang Yuhong, deputy chief of the second section of Shengsi Customs Supervision, shook the handle and started the drone. The drone quickly lifted off, flew to the side of the ship to find the water scale, and hovered over the sea. Subsequently, the "UAV-based Ship Scale Reading Intelligent Identification System" on the tablet clearly displayed the average depth data of the water ruler in a series of current videos...
In less than 20 minutes, the bulk carrier completed the water scale weighing procedure. After 1 hour and 30 minutes, complete all relevant procedures and clear customs smoothly. "Shengsi Customs took only 1.4 hours per customs clearance in June, ranking second in the entire Hangzhou Customs District." The relevant person in charge of Shengsi Customs said that in recent years, the customs clearance link has been continuously optimized, and the application of unmanned aerial vehicle technology in the business of ship water scale weight inspection has made the efficiency of customs clearance significantly improved.
According to reports, the water scale is the main basis for the settlement, claims, claims and calculation of freight and customs clearance and tax calculation of bulk goods such as coal and mineral sand in international trade. "The traditional water scale weighing method requires customs officers to take a tugboat or climb around the ship with a rope ladder for data collection, which is time-consuming and costly." Huang Yuhong introduced that the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to observe the water scale can not only help enterprises save the cost of tugboats, but also shorten the weight appraisal time of the water scale, thereby reducing the ship's port detention fee.
Taking The Baosteel Majishan Port supervised by Shengsi Customs as an example, more than 30 million tons of iron ore are imported every year, and more than 500 tugboats are generally required. Each use of the tugboat costs 3,000 to 5,000 yuan, and this alone costs at least 1.5 million yuan. Replacing traditional manual observation with a UAV observation of the water ruler can shorten the weight measurement time of the water ruler by a full 30 minutes.
In 2018, Shengsi Customs and Zhejiang University jointly innovated and developed the "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-based Ship Scale Reading Intelligent Identification System", which integrates video real-time processing technology into the water scale weighing business, and realizes the rapid, accurate and intelligent interpretation of ship water scale. In June 2019, the project successfully passed the national utility model patent certification.
It is reported that from January to June 2019, Shengsi Customs implemented a total of 89 sorties of "UAV + Water Ruler Weight Identification", saving more than 500,000 yuan in costs for enterprises and saving more than 45 hours of effective operation time.
(The original title is "Drones Help Shengsi Customs Clearance Speed Up Again", the original authors Hu Yuanyuan and Zhao Peng.) Edited by Guo Yingcong)