The crew sleeps until the boats come home

The challenge

When the boats come in, his crew must be on the line within the hour, or the catch loses its price. But boats keep no timetable. So he pays six people to wait from dawn, some days for nothing. Other days a boat arrives and half the crew is home.

How the flow works

With xMap Flows, Ryan built Cedar. Cedar is an AI employee: a flow of 6 blocks.

1. Every fifteen minutes,

   Every 15 minutes (Schedule)

2. over Boston Harbor,

   Boston Harbor (Area of interest)

3. Cedar listens for the boats out on the water,

   Boats on the water (Ships (AIS))

4. keeps the fishing boats,

   Fishing boats only (Filter)

5. notices when one enters the harbour,

   Entering the harbour (Zone alert)

6. and tells the crew to come in.

   Call the crew in (WhatsApp Business)

What it solves

• Boats come at any hour: solved by Ships (AIS) and Zone alert
• Crew paid to wait: solved by WhatsApp Business
• Catch losing its price: solved by Filter and WhatsApp Business

The result

Now the crew sleeps until Cedar writes. A trawler crosses into the harbour at four, and the message reaches six phones at once. By five the line is running, and the haddock is on ice within the hour.

Ryan stopped paying people to wait for the sea. Now the sea calls them in.

An illustrative scenario: the figures are modelled to show what the flow produces, not a customer's results.

The flow, block by block

1. 1

   Every 15 minutes

   Schedule

   Starts the flow on a timetable.

2. 2

   Boston Harbor

   Area of interest

   Sets where the flow looks: countries, cities or specific places, or areas you draw on a map.

3. 3

   Boats on the water

   Ships (AIS)

   Ships at sea or in port right now, from AIS (the signal ships send with their position, speed and heading; live from AISStream): every vessel heard in the Area of interest before this block, or around a point.

4. 4

   Fishing boats only

   Filter

   Keeps only the items that match a rule.

5. 5

   Entering the harbour

   Zone alert

   Reports items (ships, for example) that entered, crossed, are inside or left a zone.

6. 6

   Call the crew in

   WhatsApp Business · WhatsApp

   Send text, media and template messages from your WhatsApp Business number.

Templates to build it

Ready-made flows with the same blocks. Open one, change the city and the kind of place, and run it.

• Cruise ships arriving at the portAn alert, with WhatsApp to the guides, when a cruise ship enters the port.
• Fast boats entering a protected areaFast boats entering a protected area, sent to enforcement at once.
• Ships approaching the pilot boarding areaShips entering the pilot boarding area, to the pilot station every 15 minutes.
• Fishing boats inside a marine protected areaFishing boats inside a protected area, to the officers every hour.
• Ships entering my zoneAn email when a ship enters or passes through your zone, every hour.
• Heat stop for outdoor work, every hourA WhatsApp heat stop to supervisors when a site reaches 45 degrees.

Industries

Learn how it works

• GeofencingA virtual boundary that triggers something when an item enters or leaves it.
• AIS (ship tracking)Radio messages ships send with their identity, position and course.
• How to be alerted when ships enter a port areaA zone, a live AIS stream and an alert.
• Zone alerts: know when something enters an areaShips, vehicles or any moving item crossing your zone.
• Ships (AIS)Ships in a sea area, their type, speed and destination.
• Draw your areas and pointsShapes, circles and points with a distance around each.

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