A model that works, but travels as a file
UAL prices every voyage: which cargo goes along, which ports are called, what those port calls cost and what is left at the bottom line. That happens in an Excel model that is correct and has been refined for years. The bottleneck is not the formulas but the form. Every office works in its own copy, versions travel as files instead of links, there is no central view of what is being calculated across the offices, and a change to the logic has to be repeated everywhere.
What we are building
We are moving the calculation engine across one to one, so a calculation in the new environment returns the same result as in the existing model. Around it comes what Excel cannot do: vessels and charter agreements as master data, port calls with their costs per port, distances that follow automatically when the call order changes, cargoes recorded separately and linked to a calculation, and a route view on a map. Each office gets its own access with permissions per user, and head office keeps an overview of everything being calculated.
People keep doing the reasoning
This is not a system that decides what a voyage should earn. The chartering team enters the data, sees the result and decides. What we remove is the handwork that adds nothing: retyping the same data, looking up distances, copying booking lists by hand and checking whether you are working in the right version of the file.
In phases, with a go or no-go
We build in three steps of a few weeks, each ending with a moment where UAL decides whether we continue. That keeps what we build aligned with practice and puts working software in front of users early instead of at the very end. Phase one delivers a production-ready application for the offices working with the model today.
About Universal Africa Lines
Universal Africa Lines is an owner and operator of multipurpose and breakbulk liner services, with regular connections between Europe, West Africa and South America. Its head office is in Capelle aan den IJssel, with own offices and agents across Europe, South America and the United States.