VGP Exchange History
TowWorks has been providing operational, dispatch, logistics and billing software to the marine industry since 2007 They have a customer base that covers line-haul towers, fleet operators, tank barge operations, terminals, and barge owners. In early 2011 Mark Mayfield with Tennessee Valley Towing (TVT) contacted TowWorks to see if they had a software solution for electronic VGP record keeping. They did not, but expressed the interest to develop such an application since there was a desire by their customer base. Mark brought in Brent Gaines, Harley Hall, Rachael Burnett, and Sarah McGee from the James Marine team to assist with the development of the specifications. Shortly after starting the project, Lee Nelson, Molly Isnardi, and Steven Soules from Upper Rivers Services expressed their desire for a similar application and provide additional functional requirements.

VGPExchange.com Launched
A new company, VGP Exchange LLC (vgpexchange.com), was formed to develop and implement the new software solution. The company's mission is to provide an electronic VGP and vessel inspection recordkeeping system with a Software as a Service (SaaS) model for the marine industry. Working with James Marine, TVT, Upper River Services, and a petroleum tank barge operator, the specifications were established and the software was written. The system was written to allow external traffic system, like TowWorks and others to integrate via web services. While electronic traffic systems are not a requirement to interface with the VGP Exchange, they can trigger "pending inspections" based on specific traffic events like picking up a barge from a dock or a fleet.

Successful Pilot
In April of 2011 a pilot project was performed with Tennessee Valley Towing's line boat the Emma Kate and Captain Byron Mathis. While working with the TVT traffic system, a line boat picks up their barges using their system and it triggers a "pending inspection" in VGP Exchange. Boat personnel then "sign" the pending inspections making them complete. During the pilot Mathis was quoted saying "...so far I am very impressed with the ease of operation and the flagging in the inspection list when there is a problem or note made on a barge or vessel..." In May of 2012 a petroleum tank barge carrier performed a pilot of the software with no external traffic integration. Boat personnel would simply log into the site and create inspections manually. They create both boat and barge inspections as required by their standard operating procedures. After a successful pilot, they went into production June of 2012 with all their line boats and barges.

How It Works
The boat captain, mate, pilot, or deckhand logs into the VGP Exchange and completes the inspection report, noting any noncompliant barges, and signs the document electronically with a 5 to 6 digit PIN code. When the PIN code is keyed in, the system will apply an ink representation of their signature to the document. Each company implementing the software can designate who has signatory permission. The forms can also be completed by a deck hand or other person who does not have signatory permission and later be "signed" by the captain, mate, pilot or other signatory. The data for the report is stored electronically and can be retrieved as an Adobe PDF document at any time. The system will also email the NOI holder each day with any of their barges inspected the prior day. The NOI holder can view, print, or email the reports as they desire. If the NOI holder is a subscriber of the VGP Exchange, they can run reports, do analysis, and create inspection reports as well.

Current Forms
The VGP Exchange currently supports the Single and Multiple Barge inspection forms, as well as the Towing Vessel Inspection Form. They are adding the discharge form currently. As new forms arise, or if requirements for data collection change, the system is easily adaptable to those changes.

Custom Extensions
The software support extended questions for inspection reports. Each trading partner can create extra questions to be completed with the standard questions. This allows the system to capture more than just basic information. NOI holders can also create extra questions they would like service providers to complete for their barges; however, service providers have the options to "Opt-in" to the questions.

Future
The VGP Exchange is expanding to support more than just VGP documentation. The desire is to expand the document base to handle a full range of inspection documents for the marine industry. VGP Exchange desires to work with current traffic systems in the industry to provide an easy to implement web service interface that works to allow data to be seamlessly passed from the traffic system to VGP Exchange and back to the traffic system.