ABSTRACT
Efficient scheduling of oceanic transportation vessels presents serious challenges to concerned decision-makers due to the complexity of the operation and the potential savings that can be attained. A vessel usually costs tens of
and
millions of U.S. dollars with daily operational costs amounting to tens of thousands of U.S. dollars. Chartering and spot-chartering of vessels is also very expensive and should be avoided to the extent possible. In general, largescale vessel scheduling is very intricate and requires repeated revamping to accommodate changes in demand, market conditions, and weather effects. Manual approaches are often inefficient and expensive, and hence, it is imperative to utilize quantitative methods to generate and update vessel schedules efficiently and in a timely fashion.
