For a DA evaluation team, that’s what the working day looks like. A Proforma arrives. An analyst opens it, finds the applicable tariff, confirms the tonnage, then works through pilotage, towage, port dues, and the agency fee, line by line. Most of those lines are correct. A few are not. The real work is finding the few, yet confirming a line that matches the tariff takes as long as confirming one that needs a closer look.
At the same time, port call volumes keep growing faster than the teams that review them.
We built DEX to change where that attention goes.
DA analysts are skilled professionals. They know the tariffs, the ports, and the agents they work with. Their expertise is not the constraint. Their attention is.
When attention is spread evenly across every line of every DA, the lines that need it most get the same share as the lines that need none. The result is slower DAs, more back-and-forth with agents, and discrepancies that are easy to miss because they sit among dozens of correct lines.
The answer was not a faster form or another dashboard. It was a way to complete routine checks before the analyst opens the DA, so they start with the answer and spend their time on exceptions.
DEX is an AI assistant built into HarborLab’s DA evaluation page. It works on Proforma and Final DAs for commercial port calls.
You start with the answer, not the data. DEX can begin as soon as the agent submits a Proforma. By the time your analyst opens it, DEX has checked every port expense against the applicable port tariff and marked it as correct, incorrect, or open to negotiation. Your team sees at a glance where the money is at risk.
Your calculations are right from the start. DEX compares parameters such as tonnage, terminal, and tugs with suggested values based on historical Final DAs, and applies them in one action. The numbers are right before you start the conversation with the agent.
You negotiate before spending money. On Proformas, DEX shows which costs are open to negotiation, with a benchmark to support the conversation. Your team negotiates before the vessel arrives, not after you pay the invoice.
Your agents get one clear message. They bring every open point together in a single clarification email. Your analyst reviews it, edits it, and sends it. Fewer emails, faster answers, and a clearer working relationship with the agents you rely on.
Your experts focus on the exceptions. On Proformas, DEX can approve expenses that meet every rule your company has set, so your team can spend time on the lines that need judgment.
Your Final DAs close faster. On the Final DA, DEX finds each expense in the supporting documents and checks it against the tariff. Your team closes the DA without searching through every page.
Automation in DA evaluation only works if the people responsible for the numbers can trust it. That is why DEX was designed around control from the start.
DEX works under rules each company agrees to. Each step can wait for your analyst or run automatically, depending on what your team chooses. DEX never approves a DA and never sends an email on its own. DEX logs every action, so your team always knows what DEX did and what your analysts approved.
Before offering DEX to customers, we put it to work on HarborLab’s own DA desk. Our DA team has used it in its daily work since it was built, on real DAs and real port calls.
DEX is built on the HarborLab platform, which handles more than 40,000 port calls a year across more than 1,400 ports. It brings HarborLab’s existing AI tools for DA evaluation into one guided flow and draws on the same tariff data and historical Final DAs that already underpin the platform’s port cost checks. Operators using the HarborLab platform recover an average of $700 per port call.
“Every port call ends with a DA, and every line of that DA gets checked, whether it needs it or not. DEX changes where that attention goes. It does the routine work under the rules each company sets, and leaves its people the decisions only people should make. We put it to work on our own DA desk first, because that is the standard we hold ourselves to.”
Antonis Malaxianakis, Founder and CEO, HarborLab
DEX is designed for DA evaluation teams at ship owners, commercial traders, and charterers who manage commercial port calls. For owners, it means control over every port expense without adding headcount. For traders and charterers, it means verifying port call costs before they are paid, and a voyage P&L that closes with confidence, not assumptions.
DEX is available now, and HarborLab is onboarding customers in phases, starting this year. The best way to understand it is to see it work on a DA like the ones your team reviews every day.
