APBA ramps up its partnership with the London “what3words” Start-Up

31 May, 2019

APBA increased its level of cooperation with the what3words company, a start-up that was founded in 2013 and has developed a new global address system, having identified the fact that the worldwide address system had not been good enough to cover every day needs.

The start-up’s aim is to become a global standard to point out locations and has drawn up a 3-by-3-metre-square grid of the world, with each square having a 3-word unique address, meaning that each location – wherever it is in the world – can be accurately determined in only three words: e.g., ///orquesta.subir.reno denotes the 3-by-3 metre space occupied by our Passenger Terminal entrance, and ///embajada.traga.vieran indicates the 3-by-3 metre space leading to our Heavy Traffic Terminal (HTT), both at the Port of Algeciras.  Three-word addresses are easier to remember that a postal address and can be shared more accurately than any other reference system.

At the moment, the system is available in more than 30 languages, enabling more than half the world to use it in at least one of its official languages.  What3words is also the first company to set in motion pioneering global positioning technology designed with voice input in mind, and is aiding drivers all over the world in using GPS systems that are user-friendly, accurate and virtually error-free.  In fact, their work together with Mercedes-Benz and Ford has allowed millions of drivers to get to their destinations by the simple utterance of three words into their on-board digital systems.

One product of our partnership with the company is that APBA has supplemented and actually improved our port’s access information for passengers and hauliers alike – along with the rest of port users and customers – via our website and road signage at the main points of interest.  This is how we all of our points of interest and companies in Algeciras and Tarifa have been pin-pointed: they already have their what3words addresses, which has improved both the signalling of routes to and from both ports and the mobility of all the passenger and heavy goods traffic that comes into our port facilities every day.

Thanks to its simplicity and accuracy, this technological advance will curb the usual frustrations that go hand in hand with sat-nav devices – ranging from it being impossible for us to enter the right destination to giving us directions to the wrong destination.  With what3words, entering the name of a street – that may exist in that exact name in a myriad of locations, spelling a post code wrongly or pronouncing an address badly is becoming a thing of the past.