TurboRouter: An Interactive Optimisation-Based Decision Support System for Ship Routing and Scheduling

Shipping companies must manage their fleets efficiently in order to stay in business. Ship routing and scheduling is a complex planning problem that may play an important role in this respect. We present TurboRouter, a decision support system that has been developed to aid planners in this process. The system includes both functions for manual planning and advanced optimisation algorithms for automatic planning, as well as semi-automatic planning functions. The system is currently in use by a number of shipping companies. We report on the practical impact of using the system in the ship routing and scheduling planning process. The savings are considerable, both regarding the quality of solutions and in terms of the time used for planning. The system has also proven to function well as a support in negotiation of spot cargoes, as well as in strategic analyses such as contract optimisation and determination of optimal fleet size and mix both for existing business and in bidding processes. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2007) 9, 214–233. doi:10.1057/palgrave.mel.9100180