River Industry Veterans Launch Harbor Lynx At IMX 2023 To ‘Evolve The Inland River Industry’

Robert LeBlanc says good technology—including brown-water fleet-running software—should be like your refrigerator at home: something that works, but you don’t need to think about too much. LeBlanc is CEO and co-founder of Harbor Lynx, a brand-new brown-water company that officially launched June 1 at this year’s Inland Marine Expo  (IMX) in Nashville, Tenn.

Harbor Lynx says it is spearheading the next evolution of the brown water maritime industry. Headquartered in New Orleans, La., Harbor Lynx promises to ”Keep Towboatin’ Simple” with its innovative integrated inland river operating system.

Harbor Lynx’s system is designed to streamline the complexities of towboat and barge operations, LeBlanc says, making river navigation safer and simpler for operators across the United States. The Harbor Lynx system integrates dispatching, boat and barge tracking, billing, contract management, compliance, maintenance, task automation, fleet optimization, tax calculations, cybersecurity and more. With its focus on simplicity, efficiency and safety, Harbor Lynx is poised to “catalyze an evolutionary leap in inland river operations,” the company says.

Leading the technological advancements behind Harbor Lynx is Chief Technology Engineer Nick Soniat, who has developed a user-friendly and seamlessly integrated technology infrastructure. Built for iOS, Android and Windows PCs using the latest cloud technologies, the system offers a comprehensive solution to the operational challenges faced by inland waterways fleets.

River veteran Tony Geeck, chief of engineering, will work closely with customers to expedite installations, ensuring that this transformative technology is integrated seamlessly into their operations landside and onboard. Geeck created one of the first computer-based barge dispatch systems on the inland waterways and is a pioneer in wireless networking for the inland maritime industry. His hands-on approach will provide a critical link between Harbor Lynx, customer landside operators and the crews navigating America’s inland waterways.

LeBlanc demonstrated the system’s simplicity at IMX. A screen showed a fleet of barges tied up, with a tow approaching to pick up or drop off barges. The bridge operator simply has to drag and drop a barge to the fleet, or vice versa. That’s it; the software generates all the reports necessary to whomever needs them and sends them automatically. A side screen shows all the information in the reports: size of barge, what it’s carrying, time of movement, etc.—all coordinated with real-time AIS information.

LeBlanc Soniat and Geeck say they are bringing their experience, technical expertise and shared vision to spearhead evolution of the towboat and barge sector toward enhanced efficiency, safety and simplicity. Geeck and LeBlanc worked together previously at ARTCO, where Geeck was an electrical port engineer while LeBlanc was the divisional support manager.

Like so many inland companies, Harbor Lynx is somewhat of a family affair. Two of Soniat’s nine home-school children worked on the coding: 18-year-old Trinity wrote some of the user interface code, and his son Fennin also contributed. Soniat’s mother-in-law, Christine Pillsbury, came out of retirement to handle public relations for the company.

Harbor Lynx’s vision is for its system to become the interoperable backbone for the river industry, eventually to interface with all of the existing inland apps now available. “Our goal is to be like your refrigerator on the river: plug us in,” LeBlanc said. “Forget about us and know we’re keeping you on the move … simply cool.”