A route can be created or optimised ashore before a vessel sails. Once underway, the bridge team has to work with that route in the context of the vessel, the passage and the conditions ahead. If it needs to be optimised again, that decision has to connect with the planning already done ashore.
Recent typhoon disruption, and continued rerouting around the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, are reminders of how quickly a route planned before departure can change.
That is the operational challenge: keeping route optimisation connected across the ship-to-shore handover and through the passage.
A route prepared ashore still has to work onboard
Shore teams plan or optimise routes before departure, using the information and objectives available to them. The vessel team then needs to use that route onboard, with a view of the vessel and the weather context for the planning area.
When planning is split across different workflows, the handover becomes a point of friction. Teams reconcile which route is being considered, carry context between systems or repeat parts of the discussion, often through lengthy email exchanges. This takes time and makes it harder for vessel and shore colleagues to stay aligned.
The issue is not a lack of expertise on either side. It is continuity between the work done ashore and the decisions made onboard.
Route optimisation can continue underway
A route is planned against the information available at the time. Weather and sea-state conditions, vessel circumstances, regional security developments and operating priorities can all change, so a route planned before departure may not stay unchanged for the whole passage. The vessel team may need to optimise again as the voyage develops.
For that to work, the onboard workflow has to do more than display a route prepared before departure. It needs to let vessel teams use routes created or optimised ashore, optimise and compare routes onboard, and re-optimise underway, with weather overlays and available weather context alongside. Shore teams need to stay connected to that workflow too.
Bringing route optimisation onboard
Podium Route Optimisation supports voyage planning across Podium Online and Podium Onboard. Podium Onboard Routing Companion is a browser-based routing workspace inside Podium Onboard, now live for both vessel and shore teams.
Podium Onboard gives the master a vessel-specific route view. From there, the master can optimise and compare routes onboard while remaining connected to the shore-side workflow. A route created or optimised ashore can be used onboard, and the vessel team can re-optimise underway with available weather context.
What this means for your team
- One shared route plan: masters and shore teams work from the same route, with weather context.
- Route optimisation onboard: vessel teams can optimise and compare routes through Podium Onboard.
- A connected ship-to-shore workflow: routes created or optimised ashore can be used onboard, with re-optimisation available underway.
- Less reliance on separate onboard tools: customers can use Podium Onboard as part of the wider Podium Route Optimisation service.
This does not remove the need for professional judgement. It supports the people responsible for route decisions by connecting the workflow across the shore office and the vessel.
Keep ship and shore on the same route
Conditions rarely stay as planned, and the route has to keep up. Podium Route Optimisation and Podium Onboard help masters and shore teams work from the same route, from the plan made ashore to re-optimisation underway.
If you’d like to see how this could work across your fleet, get in touch with our team. Already a Podium customer? Speak to your Pole Star Global account team.