COPENHAGEN, 8 JANUARY 2026 - Operational efficiency is one of the most immediate and scalable levers available to improve fuel savings, resilience, and decarbonisation in the maritime sector. Yet most companies only capture a fraction of the available value.
A new report from the Global Maritime Forum finds that the key barriers to more efficient voyages are not technical, but systemic. Leadership challenges, organisational culture, and misaligned incentive structures continue to reinforce inefficient behaviours across the maritime value chain, slowing the uptake of cost-effective operational improvements.
The report, ‘The human side of operational efficiency in shipping’, is based on the outcomes of an interactive operational efficiency workshop hosted by the Global Maritime Forum in Copenhagen in November 2025. Bringing together stakeholders from across the value chain, the workshop examined how commercial structures, decision-making, and performance metrics shape day-to-day operational behaviour.
Through facilitated discussions and a custom voyage simulation game, participants explored why actors often act defensively, protect local incentives, and delay decisions, even when system-wide efficiency gains are available. These behaviours were found to be closely linked to siloed decision-making, fragmented KPIs, and a preference for individual certainty over collective optimisation.
Behaviours shifted notably when the workshop reframed incentives around shared outcomes. Information was shared earlier, decisions became more proactive, and optimisation occurred across the group rather than within individual functions or organisations.
The report identifies three key enablers for unlocking operational efficiency at scale: clear strategic alignment within organisations, stronger cross-departmental collaboration, and deeper collaboration across the maritime value chain. The findings underline that operational efficiency in shipping is not a technical challenge, but a human and organisational one.