Custom voyage and lock planning software
Appfront builds voyage planning for inland shipping companies and charterers: the voyage planned around the locks, bridges and sailing times that determine the route, with the expected arrival at each loading and discharge point, lock waiting times from current sources, and a planner that sees which vessel will miss its window. So that a voyage is no longer planned on experience and a phone call to the lock.
What is voyage planning and lock scheduling software?
Inland waterway voyage planning revolves around time on the water: how long a leg takes given the draught and the current at that moment, which locks and bridges lie along it, when they are operated and how long you will have to wait. Voyage planning software calculates this per trip, per vessel, and produces an expected arrival time that the charterer can pass on to the shipper. Lock planning is the part that carries the most uncertainty: a lock with a queue or a closure shifts the entire voyage, and the software draws that information from the waterway authorities' sources.
Without such a system, the skipper plans by experience, the charterer phones the lock to ask how busy it is, and the shipper receives an arrival time that can be a day out. A vessel that misses its loading window waits a day; one that arrives too early lies at anchor. For a shipping company with twenty vessels, that means a planner on the phone and a client waiting every week.
We build custom solutions because the planning has to fit your fleet, your operating area and your chartering: which vessels with which draught and speed, which routes you sail, how voyages are sold, and where the loading and discharge windows come from. A generic inland waterway route planner knows the route, but not your fleet, your clients or the way you charter.
Route and sailing time
For each voyage, the route along the waterways with the sailing time per leg, based on the vessel, the cargo and the current, and the locks and bridges along the way.
Lock and bridge planning
Operating times, waiting times and closures from the waterway authorities' sources, incorporated into the expected passage at each lock and the arrival time for each voyage.
Monitoring en route
The vessel's position against the plan, with an alert when the loading or discharge window is at risk, for the planner and the charterer.
How we build your voyage planning and lock planning software
We start with the voyages of recent months: where the arrival time deviated, which locks caused it, and how the charterer currently handles it.
Which vessels, which legs, which locks and bridges recur, how voyages are chartered and where the windows come from. We look at the voyages where the arrival time deviated.
Sailing time per leg based on vessel, cargo and current, the route along the waterways, and the locks and bridges en route with their operating times.
Waiting times and closures from the waterway authorities' sources, incorporated into the expected passage and arrival. With an alert when something changes.
Positioning against the schedule, signals to the planner and charterer, the integration with your chartering system, and then management and new waterways.
What voyage planning and lock planning software actually does
The components below come up at almost every shipping company and charterer. Which you need depends on your operating area and on how you sell voyages.
Vessel register
For each vessel, the dimensions, draught, speed laden and in ballast, and the legs on which it may sail. The foundation of every calculation.
Route calculation
The route along the waterways with sailing time per leg, the locks and bridges along the way, and alternatives in the event of a closure.
Lock and bridge operation
Operating times per lock and bridge, waiting times from current sources and closures, incorporated into the expected passage.
Expected arrival
Per voyage, the arrival at each loading and discharge point, with the margin, and the comparison with the shipper's window.
Voyage monitoring
The vessel's position against the plan, with an alert when a window is at risk and a recalculation of the rest of the voyage.
Chartering system integration
Voyages from your chartering system, the arrival passed back to the shipper, and the actual sailing time fed into post-voyage analysis.
Who we build voyage planning and lock planning software for
The software is intended for parties for whom a vessel's arrival time has a financial impact and for whom locks and bridges currently make that time unpredictable.
Inland shipping companies
Your own fleet with fixed and spot voyages. The fleet register and voyage tracking are the core.
Chartering agencies
Selling voyages to shippers and assigning them to vessels. The expected arrival time per voyage and the integration with chartering matter most.
Shippers with their own vessels
Raw materials or products moved by water, on a schedule that must match the factory. The window and the early warning on delays are what is needed.
Container inland shipping
Fixed liner services between terminals with time windows set by the terminal. Lock scheduling on busy corridors is the core.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
This page is about voyage planning. For reporting on the voyage by the skipper, see our page on a voyage report app for inland shipping, and for the port as a hub, see our page on port software. You can read about our approach at building software.
Why choose Appfront for your voyage planning and lock scheduling software?
A voyage plan is only as good as the lock it didn't see coming. We build on that: the locks and bridges in the calculation, and the sources that tell you how busy they are.
The lock is part of the calculation
Not as an estimate after the fact, but as a passage with an opening time and an expected wait. The arrival is therefore a calculation, not a guess.
The shipper hears about it sooner
A window that comes under threat is a signal to the charterer before the vessel is late. That conversation is easier than the one afterwards.
Every voyage makes the next one better
Actual sailing times per leg and per vessel feed back into the calculation. After a season, the software knows your fleet better than a new planner would.
Security and privacy in voyage planning and lock scheduling software
The software processes vessel positions, voyages and customer data from shippers. Access is set by role: the skipper sees his own voyage, the planner the fleet, the shipper only their own voyages. Positions are kept as long as the voyage and the post-voyage recalculation require.
The software runs in a European data centre, with encrypted storage and daily backups. Integrations with chartering systems and waterway authority sources use their own keys, which can be revoked per integration.
Frequently asked questions about voyage planning and lock scheduling software
Questions shipping companies and charterers ask before getting started.
It plans a voyage along the waterways, calculating sailing time per leg from vessel, cargo and current, factors in locks and bridges with opening times and waiting times, gives an expected arrival at each loading and discharge point, and monitors the voyage en route, raising a signal if a window comes under threat.
From the sources waterway authorities make available on opening times, closures and current congestion, supplemented by the actual passages of your own vessels. Where no live source exists, the software uses the historical waiting time per lock and time of day, and says so.
More accurate than an experience-based estimate, with a margin the software states itself. Uncertainty lies at busy locks and closures; that is why the arrival is recalculated en route and the charterer receives a signal as soon as a window is at risk.
Yes, on his phone or the onboard computer: the route, the expected passages and the arrival time, with an alert whenever the schedule changes. Anything the skipper reports, such as a delay, feeds back into the plan. The software doesn't replace his expertise; it gives him and the planner the same picture.
Yes. Voyages come from your freight booking, the expected arrival flows back to the voyage and the shipper, and the actual sailing times feed into post-voyage calculation. We connect to the package you use; the planning doesn't become a second freight system.
Yes, for the waterways where operating times and closures are available, which covers the main corridors. For each waterway area we review which sources exist and what historical data needs to be supplemented.
Ask that first. Inland navigation apps plan a route and give a sailing time, and for a single vessel that is often enough. Custom development makes sense if you plan a fleet against loading and unloading windows, if the freight forwarder has to promise an arrival time to the shipper, or if locks on your corridors structurally disrupt the schedule.
An arrival time you dare promise to the shipper?
Tell us how many vessels you operate, on which corridors, and how often a vessel missed its window over the past few months. We'll show you what the route calculation, lock scheduling and monitoring look like.