A white paper by BIMCO and Nautilus Labs proposes reevaluating the practice of “sail-fast-then-wait” (SFTW) behaviour in the shipping industry. SFTW involves vessels travelling at high speeds to arrive quickly, even if the berth is unavailable, to trigger the lay-time clock and maximize demurrage charges. The paper highlights that this behaviour leads to unnecessary fuel consumption and emissions, negatively impacting a vessel’s Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) rating.
The authors argue that current charter party frameworks create imbalanced incentives between owners and charterers, resulting in inefficiency. They suggest modifying charter party conditions to align incentives, reduce claims, and encourage collaborative approaches to vessel efficiency. Advances in machine learning software and high-frequency ship data enable a new approach to charter parties and dynamic performance tables. The proposed changes could potentially reduce emissions by 15 to 20%, amounting to 150 to 200 million metric tonnes of emissions and saving tens of billions of dollars in fuel annually. The white paper, titled ‘The Wrong Speed for all the Wrong Reasons’ essentially stresses the fact that- In the age of decarbonization, traditional key charter party clauses are no longer fit for purpose and need to be reviewed to address these systemic inefficiencies.
