FLEETING OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT. These three applications are for three clients in the same business, but who run their operations in totally different manners. The programs allow total management of a barge fleeting operation (essentially, a managed "parking lot" and loading/unloading facility for river barges), to include listings for over fifteen thousand barges, including owner, barge type, capacity, and type cargo. The program also tracks a large number of barge contractors (who lease the barges and pay the bills), a number of river towboats (which bring the barges to the fleet and take them away), fleet tugs (which move the barges within the fleet), and fleeting operations, like movement between moorings and docks, or to or from river towboats, or to the barge wash facility. The program tracks the position of barges within the fleet, all billable actions performed on each barge, current status of each barge, and all actions of the fleet tugs, such as barge movements, demurrage, crew changes, fuelings, and maintenance. The program also automatically creates billing invoices, with selectable date ranges and selectable barges. For example, you can create one invoice for the XYZ company showing two barges that had special maintenance, covering from the 15^th through the end of the month, then you can create another invoice for the XYZ company showing all other barges, and covering the entire month. Finally, the program tracks payments, account aging, and credits.

Results: A greatly reduced workload for the administrative staff, saving thousands of man-hours per year, and greater accuracy in invoicing. One company reported that prior to this system, they had as many as ten invoices a year that were not sent out due to oversight; with this system, no invoices are overlooked.