Enhancing passage planning & compliance efficiency with OneOcean 2025

With tightening global regulations and increasing scrutiny on compliance, ship operators face growing risks of costly detentions, fines, and environmental penalties. Yet many still rely on outdated passage planning methods that leave fleets exposed to regulatory failures. As the International Maritime Organization clearly states, passage planning is essential for the safety and efficiency of navigation and maritime environmental protection [1]. Some courts even view a defective passage plan as making a vessel legally unseaworthy [2]. 

Despite the availability of digital tools, issues still arise when data is fragmented across multiple systems. As Peter Turner, Solutions Consultant at LR OneOcean, highlights in his article Voyage Planning Mistakes: Are Spreadsheets Putting Your Ship at Risk?, reliance on manual processes, such as Excel spreadsheets, increases the risk of miscalculations and compliance failures. 

Achieving effective and compliant passage planning requires strong data preparation, seamless data sharing, and a clear understanding of procedures, routes and regulations at both ship and shore level. While the industry has shifted from paper-based methods to digital alternatives, many operators still struggle with disconnected spreadsheets and outdated systems. These error-prone processes create inefficiencies and compliance risks, limiting the full benefits of digitalisation.  

Imagine a scenario where a vessel navigates a narrow coastal approach at night, relying on charts that should have been updated days ago. The tide is lower than expected, and an unmarked sandbank lies ahead. The bridge crew assumes the passage is safe—until the ship runs aground, trapped in shifting sediments. 

This scenario isn’t hypothetical. According to Ship Owners, countless maritime incidents stem from incomplete or outdated navigational data [3]. Common issues include: 

• Outdated charts that don’t reflect the latest safety updates. 
• Unmarked no-go areas, leaving vessels vulnerable to grounding. 

For example, a post-incident investigation into a container ship that ran aground in 2011 near a Chinese port found that inadequate data sharing between the bridge team contributed to the accident [4]. Failure to communicate no-go areas effectively highlights the dangers of fragmented or inaccessible data in passage planning. 

Bridges, power lines, and shifting seabeds pose serious navigational risks. OneOcean 2025 automates key calculations to ensure vessels maintain safe operational margins while reducing manual workload and human error. 

For example, a bulk carrier approaching a congested port may face both low bridge clearance and shifting tidal conditions. OneOcean 2025 integrates real-time ENC chart data with live tidal updates to ensure air draft and under keel clearance (UKC) calculations remain precise, preventing costly last-minute route adjustments. 

Similarly, a tanker navigating an environmentally restricted area must comply with pre-configured UKC policies aligned with SIRE 2.0 standards. OneOcean 2025 provides seven OCIMF-recommended UKC policies by default while allowing vessel operators to define, adjust, and enforce their own dynamically. This ensures compliance with OCIMF guidelines and company-specific requirements while minimising manual intervention and improving inspection readiness. 

The Platform also integrates live tidal data and squat effects to prevent miscalculations that could put vessels at risk, while ENC chart integration automates overhead clearance assessments, reducing reliance on manual checks and ensuring safer passage under bridges and power lines. By allowing flexible policy deployment across the fleet, OneOcean 2025 helps operators maintain compliance, enhance navigational safety, and reduce the risk of non-compliance. 

A fleet operating across multiple regions may have vessels following different under keel clearance (UKC) policies, leading to inconsistent clearance margins. This creates confusion, increases risk in restricted waters, and complicates regulatory audits. 

With the OneOcean Platform, fleet managers can standardise navigation policies and safety parameters across all vessels, reducing ambiguity and ensuring consistency. In the latest release, shoreside teams can configure and deploy predefined waypoint table settings, ensuring uniform parameters across the fleet, reducing manual input errors, and improving compliance with company policies and international regulations. 

As a ship approaches an environmentally regulated zone, its bridge officers may be unaware of recent regulatory changes due to outdated compliance data, increasing the risk of accidental non-compliance. Imagine a scenario where a container vessel is navigating through a protected whaling area, where seasonal restrictions on vessels’ allowable discharge and speed frequently change. Without real-time updates, bridge officers may unknowingly violate temporary speed or discharge limits, leading to severe penalties. 

With OneOcean 2025 and the Environmental Compliance module, compliance alerts prevent such incidents by notifying crews before entering regulated zones. Shoreside teams can configure alerts via the shoreside portal, tracking vessels in real-time and ensuring compliance measures are taken before regulatory violations occur. 

By integrating predictive alerts with passage planning workflows, operators can proactively mitigate risks rather than reacting to violations after they happen. 

Through eliminating inefficiencies, integrating real-time data, and enhancing regulatory compliance, OneOcean 2025 enables a more resilient approach to passage planning. With automated calculations, synchronised workflows, and predictive alerts, operators can ensure their vessels remain efficient, safe, and audit-ready in an increasingly complex maritime environment. 

Take control of your passage planning with OneOcean 2025 today. Learn how our fully integrated platform can transform your fleet’s compliance, safety, and operational efficiency.

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