Passage planning

Passage planning or voyage planning is a procedure to develop a complete description of a vessel's voyage to safely navigate from start to finish. The plan includes leaving the dock and harbor area, the en route portion of a voyage, approaching the destination, and mooring, the industry term for this is 'berth to berth'. According to international law, a vessel's captain is legally responsible for passage planning. The duty of passage planning is usually delegated to the ship's navigation officer, typically the second officer on merchant ships.

Passage plans are important for the safety of a vessel as it requires the correct assessment and establishment of safety settings. They ensure that vital navigation information is readily available, expectations for crew and those ashore are known, and minimize the likelihood of accidents. The modern procedure for passage plans was developed by the International Maritime Organization and involves a four-stage process.

Studies show that human error is a factor in 80 percent of navigational accidents and that in many cases the human making the error had access to information that could have prevented the accident. The practice of voyage planning has evolved from penciling lines on nautical charts to a process of risk management.