Voyage planning needs ‘industry-wide approach’

The webinar was the fourth in Riviera Maritime Media’s Vessel Optimisation Webinar Week, part of our ongoing, multi-week series of webinars.

PT Shipmanagement managing director Patrick Toll, NAPA Shipping Solutions senior research engineer Dr Teemu Manderbacka, Van Weelde Shipping Group technical director Raoul de Troije and Coach Solutions vice president sales Ulla Knudsen offered vieiws on how to get the most out of voyage planning and move it to the next level.

Panellists agreed that sharing data and boosting communications across all stakeholders would improve the vessel efficiency achieved by voyage planning.

Mr Toll said “We keep all data collected through the vessel’s life which allows us to use the best trim and power combination. Our biggest challenge today is no one yet wants to have this data or is unable to use it. It needs an industry-wide approach to push through voyage planning into final chapter.”

Another issue, he said, was that route planning systems only look at time spent at sea. “There are projects going on to connect all the stakeholders from the start of the voyage to final port arrival to enable communication between ports, pilots and traffic control systems (TCS) with the aim to make just-in-time arrivals possible. This will have a huge impact on voyage efficiency.”

A poll of webinar attendees asking when they see data sharing with ports, TCS and pilots being implemented, saw the majority – 50% – answer it would happen in two years.

And when asked how they regarded just-in-time arrival schemes, 38% said they would like incentives to join them and an equal number said they see some value in using the schemes. Some 24% of respondents said they use the schemes all the time.

Dr Manderbacka also highlighted the importance of shareholder communications and using big data, saying "communication of voyage plans with stakeholders is essential to effect these optimal voyages”.

Dr Manderbacka explained how NAPA is using big data. “There is big data available that is not necessarily used. We are integrating that model and weather forecasts, AIS data on past voyages and port data that is publicly available and combining these with noon reports.”

This allows NAPA to create a digital twin that can then be used to improve voyage optimisation.

Mr de Troije gave a shipowner’s perspective. Van Weelde Shipping, he said, is using NAPA voyage optimisation software, and he provided examples of how optimising vessel performance can achieve huge savings. In response to an attendee question, he also pinpointed how voyage planning can be used to highlight environmentally friendly performance. “We see more and more that cargo owners are interested in the eco-side of the vessel. We could use our optimisation calculations to show we are doing our utmost to have benefits out of the voyage which for an owner is a commercial benefit but for others, an environmental benefit as well.”

Elsewhere, Ms Knudsen highlighted the parameters needed to achieve the optimal route for maximum vessel efficiency in terms of weather routeing.

She said “To find the optimal route, we need to find the vessel’s profit speed, which is a balance between cost of time and bunker price.”

Ms Knudsen highlighted how another factor that is “very important and commonly overlooked” is hull performance. “The vessel may be described as being able to do 12 knots at 20 tonnes in your shipping system.” But fouling means this might not be the case in real life.

“We make this calculation with the weather data and noon reports received from the vessel and we update the actual speed and consumption profile of the vessel for here and now which has several benefits. It is a much better and more accurate calculation of bunker cost and ETA. If a vessel is fouled, it may not be able to do 12 knots and might be only able to do 11, which means we know we can’t expect the vessel to outrun bad weather, and that it is best to have it sail around it or behind it.”

Further polls found the majority – 67% – would find it beneficial if routes were created online and forwarded immediately to the vessel, while 52% said they felt they needed a port captain on their staff to assist with route planning software

Asked to what extent does the shore side determine route planning, 36% said half, followed by 26% at three-quarters while 23% said only 10% was determined shore side.

You can view the webinar, in full, in our webinar library.

And you can sign up to attend our upcoming webinars on our events page.