MARITIME TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT VOYAGE PLANNING

Maritime Transportation Planning Ship routing/scheduling Ship management Stowage planning

Planning Sailing Schedules Planning a vessel’s sailing schedule; it is of the utmost importance that she should be fully employed. The optimum size of fleet is that where the minimum number of vessels are earning the maximum revenue. There are basically 3 types of services; The frequently regular The unfrequently regular Liner Operated according to a particular demand > Tramp

Factors influencing the sailing schedules Number of ships and their availability Volume, type and any special characteristics of the ships. Traffic fluctuations; peak demands Climatic conditions; ice-bound ports Competition Time necessary for terminal duties at port. Voyage time Actual types of ship and their size Location of canals; Suez and Panama; as alternative routes Actual estimated voyage cost General availability of port facilities

Routing Basically one of the below should be selected Shortest > initial course Fastest More simple The shortest route is not all the time the fastest one.

VOYAGE PLANNING Shipping routes may be classified according to their geographical characteristics (and the corresponding type and size of vessel used): deep-sea: larger size vessels, between continents short-sea,coastal: smaller size vessels (feeders); voyage legs are relatively short. inland waterways

VOYAGE PLANNING Voyage planning is to decide on the ports that each ship will visit and in what order. A voyage consists of a sequence of port calls, starting with the port where the ship loads its first cargo and ending where the ship unloads its last cargo and becomes empty again. A voyage may include multiple loading ports and multiple unloding ports.

VOYAGE PLANNING Optimal weather routing is basically what experienced seafarers do for centuries when talking of voyage planning. Reliable forecasts expected during the voyage and feasible voyage plans; optimal weather routing. Weather routing and voyage planning is a procedure where an optimum route is sought for a particular ship on a particular transit based on forecasts of weather and sea state and the ship performance characteristics.

VOYAGE PLANNING minimum or specified (line service) passage time; For intact merchant vessels “optimum” is a combination of several objectives: minimum or specified (line service) passage time; minimum fuel consumption within specified passage time; minimum damage to ship and cargo; maximum comfort of passengers;

VOYAGE PLANNING Shipmasters overall goal of their voyage planning to arrive just in time at minimum fuel consumption. Each ship must transport cargo in the shortest distance at minimal cost. Vehicle routing has to satisfy both customers and shippers by deciding optimal routing at minimal transportation costs. The purpose of vehicle routing is to plan an optimal voyage route that minimizes logistics costs. Due to the high operating costs of ships, waiting times at the port should be shortened.

Carrier routing Destinations are given beforehand within the planning horizon. Vessel arrival schedule known. Each vessel has a different tonnage and a different speed, and so the cost structure (including fixed costs) is also different. The stevedoring costs of each port are different.

VOYAGE PLANNING IN LINER A voyage starts at the port specified by the ship operator (usually a primary loading port). Ships deployed in liner shipping usually operate on closed routes consisting of a sequence of ports where each port may appear more than once in the sequence. Once a ship is assigned a route, it will often perform multiple voyages where a voyage is one traversal of the route. Due to the closed routes and the fact that ships often load and discharge in each port of call, the ships are rarely if ever empty and it is therefore difficult to define the origin and destination of a voyage. 13

VOYAGE PLANNING IN LINER The demand experienced in liner shipping is characterized by an origin and destination pair. Once a ship is assigned to a route, it will remain on the route performing multiple voyages of it during the planning period. If the ships are not required to be empty in one or more ports, then the capacity calculations have to take into account cargo carried over from previous routes and voyages.

VOYAGE PLANNING IN TRAMP Tramp market; operates a heterogeneous fleet of ships with specific ship characteristics including different cost structures and load capacities. In the short-term, it is of no interest to plan a change of the fleet size. In some cases, the controlled fixed fleet may have insufficient capacity to serve all COA-cargoes during the planning horizon. Some of the cargoes can be serviced by spot charters, which are ships chartered for a single voyage.

VOYAGE PLANNING IN TRAMP The ships in the fleet are charged port and channel tolls when visiting ports and passing channels. The remaining variable sailing costs consist mainly of fuel and diesel oil costs. Normally, tramp shipping companies seek to maximize the profit of their activity, when optimizing the ship schedules.