This doctoral thesis systematically reviews and analyses the methods and international guidelines regarding the organization and operation of the vessel traffic service (VTS), i.e. the types and function of the VTS centre, and the equipment and the personnel of the Centre. The paper identifies and examines the factors that influence the workload, as well as the methods of determining the workload of the VTS officers. The analysis of their impact, especially the analysis of the information flow in the process of the information exchange, has resulted in setting up of the model which describes the entire process of the information flow within the VTS system through the activities and work processes of the VTS officers. Due to the IT development, the VTS officers have been faced with the challenge of selecting the relevant information as a requirement for making the best possible decision. One way to collect data on the parties in the maritime transport and conditions on the marine routes is to communicate effectively with the vessels using a radio communication system. In order to determine the scope of communication on a particular VHF channel, or to determine the impact of data collection and exchange via radio communication system on the workload of the VTS officers, the paper has analysed the overall radio communication received by the VTS centre in a certain period of time. Optimized information exchange within the VTS system has been developed, which reduces the scope and the amount of information exchanged via the radio communication system, so that the VTS officer still has essential data in order to gather the relevant information. The main goal of the VTS information exchange optimization system is to reduce the workload of the VTS officers and increase the safety of navigation. The results obtained by comparing the information exchange results within the non-optimized and the optimized model indicate an overall reduction of the radio communication.