Hapag-Lloyd Says its Centralised Fleet Routing Sytem Helps Reduce Bunker Consumption

Fleet Support Center uses special software to monitor all vessels owned and chartered by Hapag-Lloyd. 

Hapag-Lloyd says that taking a holistic view of workflow and routing optimisation from its Hamburg-based Fleet Support Center (FSC) for the 190 ships in Hapag-Lloyd's current fleet, is helping to reduce bunker consumption and the corresponding CO2 emissions.

"The only way to optimise consumption is by taking a holistic view of all the factors, and the Fleet Support Center makes this possible," explained Hapag-Lloyd.

"By increasing transparency and communication between all of the relevant departments on land and the ship management teams, unnecessary consumption can be avoided – such as if a ship had to use more power because of a storm or big waves in order to arrive at its destination port as scheduled, even though it would then have to wait there before it could dock. That is why the FSC gathers information from a number of different areas so that it can be assessed and shared accordingly."

The FSC has six large, interconnected flat screens that show information such storm areas and indications for wave height, as well as the position of all of Hapag-Lloyd's ships - its own as well as chartered vessels - on a large world map.

"Speed is the most important factor for a ship's fuel consumption," said says Jörn Springer, a former ship operations officer who has the goal of reducing the fleet's fuel consumption as well as the CO2 emissions.

"Draught and trim are also relevant, but cannot be optimised in isolation from each other. Under certain circumstances, a ship can even consume less bunker when its draught is greater."

Last month, Dr. Emel Aktas, Senior Lecturer in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Cranfield School of Management, argued that virtual arrival systems can clear up congestion at ports, and help lower fuel consumption and reduce vessel emissions in the process.