Ship Scheduling and Cost Analysis for Route Planning in Liner Shipping

Liner shipping companies can benefit significantly by improving ship scheduling and cost analysis in service route planning by systematic methods. This paper proposes a dynamic programming (DP) model for ship scheduling and identifies cost items relevant to the planning of a service route, which can help planners make better scheduling decisions under berth time-window constraints, as well as estimate more accurately voyage fixed costs and freight variable costs in liner service route planning. The proposed model pursues an optimal scheduling strategy including cruising speed and quay crane dispatching decisions, vis à vis tentative and rough schedule arrangements. Additionally, the model can be extended to cases of integrating one company’s – or strategic alliance – partners’ service networks, in order to gain more efficient hub-and-spoke operations, tighter transshipment and better level-of-service. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2003) 5, 378–392. doi:10.1057/palgrave.mel.9100087