摘要

　　整體而言，在蓬勃發展的海運市場裡船東、船舶租傭者以及營運者在營運上皆面臨了高漲的固定成本，如每日租金與變動成本，如燃油成本。如何利用先進的科技以輔助船舶的營運達到經濟效率與改善船舶安全管理現今已成為各方最為關注的課題。

　　本研究主要目的在於探討與評估船舶氣象導航服務對散裝航運公司的服務績效。雖然利用氣象資料作為船舶導航的概念早已出現在氣候與氣象相關的研究之中，且其被進一步衍申利用於海洋氣象預測，此研究中我們利用鳥巢檢定、共線性檢定、迴歸分析與個案研究的方式以檢視氣候、洋流、耗油、船齡及船型等因素對航次績效的影響。本研究針對氣象導航服務對船舶營運及安全管理之影響結論分述如下：

1. 精確及動態的船舶氣象導航服務可幫助船舶避開惡劣氣候的直接衝擊。
2. 氣候、洋流因素及耗油對於船舶的航行績效呈現顯著且正向的影響。船齡及船型因素對航行績效雖有影響但不顯著。
3. 當船舶接受氣象導航的最佳航行路線規劃的服務後，有助於減少船舶的航行時間。
4. 氣象導航服務可有效地協助船東、船舶租傭者以及營運者達成較佳成本效益。
5. 氣象導航服務是船舶安全管理的有效工具。

　　迴歸分析與個案研究結果顯示在先進的氣象科技方面的投資，如氣象導航，對船東、船舶租傭者以及營運者而言，精密準確的氣象預測對改善船舶的安全管理與達成成本效率有相當的助益與貢獻。

Abstract

　Ship owners, charterers and operators in general have faced increased both fixed cost, like charter hire, and variable cost, such as arising bunker price in today’s booming shipping market. It became a great concern to all the parties that better to improve ship risk management and keep ships performance as possible as cost efficiency at the same time with advanced technology.

　This paper mainly argues in favor of a closer link between a dry bulk shipping company and the performance evaluation of weather routing service. Although the idea of using weather information for ship routing appears early in the weather and meteorological literatures, and has continued to be used in oceanic meteorological forecasts, we examined its performance by nest test, correlation test, linear regression and case study method to investigate how weather, current, consumption, ship’s age and ship size influenced voyage performance. Research results and findings are introduced as following:

1. Precise, dynamic weather routing service helps in saving ship from direct impact of weather risks.
2. Weather, current factors and consumption have significant influenced upon ship’s performance. Ship’s age and size have no significant influence on voyage performance.
3. When ship accepted optimal recommended sailing route, ship’s transiting time saved.
4. Weather routing service is effective for making cost-effective voyages for ship owners, charterers and operators.
5. Weather routing service is an effective managerial tool for ship risk management.

　The theoretical analyses as well as the practical cases studied indicate that investments in advanced weather technology i.e. weather routing, indeed have considerable contributions to ship owners, charterers and operators because of accurate weather forecasting, which improved ship risk management, and consequently lead to cost effective performance.

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