Louisiana firms team up to develop new tool for measuring cargo

If you look at the side of any shipping vessel, you’ll see markings indicating how deep it lies in the water. The process for measuring and documenting these markings, known as draft marks, has essentially remained the same since the time of the Egyptians, but a pair of Louisiana companies plans to change that this year. St. James Stevedoring has teamed up with St. James Technologies to create a high-tech sensor that measures the amount of cargo that can fit into a vessel or barge. In many industries today, getting that figure requires making calculations based on the draft marks and sending the information to an office for further measuring—a process that can take as long as two days in some cases. The sensor developed by the Louisiana companies delivers capacity reports in real time, and also provides better accuracy than the current method. It may sound like a relatively small matter, but if you consider that filling a coal barge just six inches short of its capacity equates to 84 tons of unshipped product, you can see how the new technology could mean big savings for companies. Convent-based St. James Stevedoring and Baton Rouge-based St. James Technologies hope to begin selling the drafting tool later this year. “It’s got the potential to be revolutionary,” says St. James Stevedoring Vice President of Marketing and Sales John Crane, adding that potential global partners for marketing the product have already been identified. —Matt Randolph