BoatOn: Pioneers of the maritime ecological transition with ADEME

Team BoatOn © BoatOn

The Bordeaux-based start-up is launching a number of innovations aimed at professionals and recreational boaters, and has joined ADEME's Environmental Transition program.

BoatOn, an innovative start-up in the maritime sector, is making an active commitment to the ecological transition by joining ADEME's Environmental Transition program. Selected from among 8 companies, BoatOn has joined the first intake of this acceleration course, initiated by Tourisme Lab Nouvelle-Aquitaine and ADEME. For one year, BoatOn's managers will take part in monthly training sessions and workshops to help them transform their business models and those of their customers in order to better meet the challenges of climate change.

In partnership with ADEME, BoatOn launched trainings at the beginning of June 2024 designed to help its customers reduce their carbon footprint. The government-funded courses cover four key topics: the basics of the energy transition (decarbonisation and rational use of resources), the new standards of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), good maintenance practices, and personnel management in sensitive environments.

With this program, BoatOn is positioning itself as a key player in the ecological transition in the maritime sector, offering professionals the tools they need for a sustainable future.

BoatOn revolutionises navigation with an automatic, connected logbook

BoatOn is innovating once again with the launch of an automatic logbook, making life easier for recreational boaters and marine professionals. Using AIS (Automatic Identification System) data or the user's smartphone, this software records in real time the ports of departure and arrival, the route taken, speed, course, fuel consumption and hours of operation of onboard equipment. The BoatOn Book also provides time-stamped weather data for each navigation.

This logbook, which can be accessed digitally or printed out, facilitates checks by the authorities. What's more, the data collected can be exported in PDF or Excel format, enabling routing to be analysed and optimised, as well as calculating the ecological footprint of each journey.

"To my knowledge, the BoatOn Book is the first computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) to offer an automatic logbook. But our ambition doesn't stop there: thanks to boat usage and maintenance data, we'll be able to provide several environmental indicators to help our customers manage their boats more sustainably," says Bertrand Gerbaud, founder of BoatOn.

BoatOn launches an innovative crew management feature for marine professionals

In 2024, BoatOn is introducing a new major innovation: the crew management module. This feature will enable BoatOn Book users to record their working hours via an electronic time clock and submit absence requests (paid leave, sick leave, time off work, etc.) in just a few clicks. There's no longer any need to fill in paper forms and have them signed by the manager. Timesheet entry and generation are entirely paperless, in line with IMO and ILO standards, and can be downloaded, emailed or printed.

Managers, meanwhile, have an interface for monitoring working hours, approving leave and creating attendance schedules. This crew management module offers a fast, simple solution that complies with MLC, STCW and OPA (US) legislation.

"Anyone who needs to keep track of their working and resting hours will find BoatOn's crew management useful," says Bertrand Gerbaud, founder of BoatOn. "I'm always surprised when users contact us - one in particular, a leader in the towing industry - and tell us that their current system is still paper-based."

In this way, BoatOn continues to digitise and simplify maritime operations, while at the same time making a commitment to ecological and responsible management of marine activities.