Ship operations, also named voyage management, is the day-to-day management of the company's vessels and cargoes.
The ship operator is responsible for ensuring safe and efficient operations. As part of the operations department in a ship owning company, the department is mainly responsible for the voyage management of a vessel after she has been fixed for a voyage or timecharter.
The operations department play a critical role in the efficient and safe operation of a ship owning company's fleet. They are essential for maintaining the company's reputation, ensuring regulatory compliance, and optimizing operational costs.
Here are some of their key responsibilities:
The operations department acts as the main coordinator. They coordinate between the ship owners, the company's departments, the vessels under management, the charterers, and all third parties involved with the ships.
Third partied involved with the ship could include; ship agents, ship chandlers, bunkering suppliers, shippers, receivers, stevedores, etc.
The operations department provides post-fixture support to the vessels.
The post-fixture support includes issuing voyage instructions, ensuring the ships perform as per the charterparty agreements, informing stakeholders about the progress of the vessel, and ensuring the safe and efficient carriage and delivery of cargoes.
The department is responsible for supervising the disbursement of all funds necessary to run the ships, arranging for freight, hire and demurrage collection from charterers, and payments for the provision of the vessels with bunkers.
The operators are responsible for arranging the most practical and economical port to bunker the vessel, and for negotiating the best possible price from the bunker suppliers.
The operations department nominates the ship agent in each port, and supervises actions such as cargo handling, port activities, pilotage, towage, wharfage, dockage, canal transits, conveying of cargoes, and loading and discharging of vessels.
They handle the preparation and management of voyage documentation, such as bills of lading, port documentation, and other required paperwork.
The operators monitor the vessel's performance compared to the voyage estimation, and provide feedback to the chartering department as to the accuracy of their estimates.
