Virtual Arrival: a Real Option for Energy Saving?

The maritime traffic is the real backbone of the international transport of goods in the world and it is driven by a severe observance of time scheduling. Nevertheless, mainly in relation with the most traveled routes, frequently it might happen that port facilities are congested, and the time schedule for ship load/unload operations is accordingly delayed. In this circumstance the choice is between meeting the original ETA (estimated time of arrival) and then let the ship riding at anchor or slowing down the ship in order to adjust the arrival to the actually needed time window. The latter option is called "Virtual Arrival"[1] because it consists of applying a speed reduction that fits the new time for port operations instead of arriving at the original ETA. The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent the Virtual Arrival policy could be a valuable option providing a reasonable energy saving for ships. The potential benefits are considerable and they result in direct saving in fuel consumption, reduction of CO2 emissions and less congested port areas.