How to use the VGM solution

3 minute read

Overview

The VGM blockchain solution is intended to be used for the request and provisioning of the Verified Gross Mass (VGM) certificate in accordance to the SOLAS regulations on container weighing. It provides all the stakeholders in the VGM process (the shipper, the freight forwarder, the road haulier, the shipping line and shipping agent, the scale operator and the port authority and port terminals) a role-based view and lifecycle management of VGM certificates, based on immutable, transparent and secure blockchain ledger. The solution offers a web-based front-end application (conPESO) to allow for the solution end users to enter company, vehicle and weight requests information, read the current state, update requests with weight results, and more. The information entered by the users is written to the blockchain ledger serving as the single source of truth, and at the same time to the mongoDB instances configured as additional backend of the solution. This is done for the purpose of caching and for running more complex filtering queries on the query data returned from blockchain.

Example of Use

To use the solution, a frontend is available to the user in the URL selected in the deployment configuration. The main interface allows registration of new users/login of existing users and the main page provides a view into different resources along with left-side navigation tree:

Main navigation view of conPESO offers the following options:

• Requests: Register/modify/query/delete weighing requests. In addition, they can be exported to PDF and Excel
• Company profile: See the user’s company data and add relationships with other client or supplier companies (usually shipper or haulier).
• Companies: Register/modify/query/delete companies (of type carrier, charger, scale, VGM agent, shipping agent, or admin).
• Vehicles: Register/modify/query/delete vehicles of a specific transport company. It is also possible to register these vehicles and associate them with the transport company by a second company (usually a scale operator).
• Users: Register users, or modify/delete them, change their password. When a user is registered, we must also indicate their role and what emails type we want them to receive. Depending on the role, the access that the user will have to the application will be limited. When registering, user company affiliation must also be entered to allow more fine-grained access control.
• Configuration: Access data and credentials to the PCS system in order to obtain the information of the shipping companies.
• Master Data -> Shipping Lines: Data of the shipping companies extracted from the PCS. It can be edited, and also added from an Excel.
• Master Data -> Cities: List of cities. They can be added manually, or from an Excel.
• Access options-> Logout: Log out of the application
• Access options-> Change password: Change the user’s password

For a full example of Use demonstration see the section “4.9 Demo” of the deliverable [D4.2 Blockchain based data governance rules M20]