Weather Routing That Pays For Itself.
ABB Ability™ SPOS — Ship Performance Optimization System puts route and speed optimisation on your bridge, using ABB's marine forecast and a hydrodynamic model of your own vessel. Installed on more than 4,500 ships worldwide. Supplied and supported by SepcoTech as part of the Vessel Performance portfolio.
Available through SepcoTech
SepcoTech is a partner for ABB Ability™ SPOS, which now sits in our Vessel Performance portfolio alongside hull analytics, foul-release coating and in-water grooming. We handle licensing and onboarding, crew briefing, measured pilots and first-line support. Tell us about your fleet and we'll take it from there.
Your route decides your fuel bill, your carbon cost and your cargo
Every voyage is a compromise — safety, ETA, port rotation, charter-party speed, bunker price, emissions cost — all pulling in different directions, and all changing while you're at sea.
EU ETS is at full rate
Since January 2026 the EU Emissions Trading System covers 100% of in-scope maritime emissions, with methane and nitrous oxide counted alongside CO2. The phase-in discount is gone — every tonne of fuel now carries a full allowance cost on top of the bunker price.
FuelEU has bitten
FuelEU Maritime completed its first full compliance cycle in 2026 and issued its first penalties, benchmarked well-to-wake. Operators now know their real exposure — and a UK scheme adds a second, parallel carbon cost.
The shortest route is rarely the best one
CII is measured per unit of distance and cargo. A longer track sailed in better conditions at lower consumption can improve your rating immediately — counter-intuitive, and worth real money.
Most bridges still guess
ABB's own survey found nine in ten operators agree weather data matters — but only around one in ten of those using it have genuinely integrated it into decisions. Most Masters still work from experience and a printed speed-down table.
Optimise every voyage against the goal that matters
ABB Ability™ SPOS is onboard decision-support software for route and speed optimisation, running on the bridge or in the ship's office. It receives ABB's marine forecast up to four times a day, combines it with a hydrodynamic profile of your specific vessel, and calculates the optimum route — with or without a fixed ETA.
Time
Reach the destination in the shortest time — the fastest navigable, weather-aware track.
Fuel
Lowest total fuel consumption in metric tonnes — fewer emissions for the same voyage.
Total voyage cost
Lowest total cost, weighing time cost against anticipated fuel for the most commercially efficient run.
Fixed ETA
Lock the arrival time for a berth window or laycan and let the engine find the cheapest way to meet it.
The Master compares route alternatives side by side, sees the weather along each track, and recalculates as the forecast changes. It is a tool for the Master, not a replacement for him — he sees why the system recommends what it recommends, and he stays in command of the decision.
Four things underneath the recommendation
A weighted multi-model forecast, a hydrodynamic model of your ship, a route network built from real passages, and an algorithm that varies speed as well as track.
A blend, not a single model
ABB blends the leading global forecast models — ECMWF, the UK Met Office and NCEP — with weights that shift by forecast lead time, refined by ABB's own meteorologists and calibrated against local observations. More than 20 parameters feed the optimisation, including salinity for ballasting and humidity and dew point for cargo ventilation.
Hydrodynamic models from MARIN
SPOS draws on a Ship Profile Library developed with MARIN, the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands, holding wind and wave resistance algorithms by vessel type. That means accurate routing from day one — including on chartered-in tonnage where you don't hold the performance model. If you have your own model, it can be used instead.
Built from decades of real passages
ABB's route network covers practical port-to-port routes, canals, traffic separation schemes and emission control areas, with navigational constraints and port approaches included. In constrained water the algorithm stays on the network for safety; in open water it optimises freely.
Variable-speed routing
ABB describes SPOS's variable-speed algorithm as the industry's first. It varies speed along the route to bypass severe weather while respecting RPM and speed ranges, ECA transits and fixed ETAs — with voyage trim optimisation to reduce consumption further.
Weather in, four times a day — over a thin pipe
The forecast arrives by email or HTTP, and you subscribe only to the sea areas you actually sail. That keeps data volume and satcom cost under control, and it is why SPOS works on ships where a cloud platform would not.
- Global grid with fine-mesh resolution over high-traffic areas
- Over 20 optimisation parameters, plus derived risk wind speed and risk wave height
- Ice concentration levels and the North Atlantic iceberg limit displayed
- Predefined restrictions — ECA/SECA, ice, war and piracy zones, load lines — plus your own drawn areas
A route the bridge will actually accept
Naive optimisers produce great-circles through shoals. SPOS follows a curated route network in shallow and constrained water and only optimises freely offshore — so the output is a passage a Master recognises, not a line on a chart he has to argue with.
- Canals, traffic separation schemes and port approaches built in
- Vessel, cargo and regulatory restrictions applied automatically
- Side-by-side comparison of route alternatives before committing
- Recalculation as each new forecast arrives
Fuel, carbon, cargo and paperwork
Four returns on the same decision — and only the first one is about fuel.
Lower fuel and lower carbon cost
ABB reports fuel savings of 2–5% from weather-optimised routing, depending on vessel type, season and conditions. Every tonne saved is a tonne you don't buy — and, on EU-scope voyages, an allowance you don't have to surrender.
A better CII rating — even on a longer route
Carbon intensity is measured per unit of distance and cargo. A longer track sailed in better conditions with lower consumption can improve your CII rating immediately. The shortest route is rarely the most efficient one.
Less damage, less downtime, safer crews
Avoiding heavy weather means fewer cargo and lashing failures, less structural fatigue, less off-hire, and a safer working environment on deck.
Less admin on the bridge
Configurable ship-to-shore reporting replaces duplicated noon reporting. Routes, communications and performance indicators are available to your shore team through ABB Ability™ Fleetguard, so bridge and office work from the same picture.
Route around ship motions, not just wave height
Fuel isn't the only thing the weather costs you. Motions cause lashing failures, cargo shift, container loss, crew injury and structural fatigue — and they don't correlate neatly with significant wave height. They depend on your vessel's response at that draft, in that loading condition, in that sea state.
The SPOS Seakeeping module
Seakeeping calculates forecast vessel motions as part of the route optimisation, and routes around conditions that would exceed the thresholds you set. ABB positions it as the only established solution combining voyage performance optimisation with fully integrated onboard ship-motion optimisation, and reports up to a further 1.5% fuel saving alongside reduced container loss and added cargo capacity.
- Threshold values for any motion — displacement, angles, accelerations, even seasickness indices
- Virtual sensors placed anywhere on the vessel or its cargo, and combinable
- Checks for parametric roll, synchronous roll, broaching and high-wave resonance
- Polar diagram and time-series charts showing where and when thresholds would be exceeded
- Risk zones drawn on the map and animated forward in time
- With a GPS feed, real-time motion data plus course and speed guidance to escape a developing event
- Set-up needs only vessel type, dimensions, draft and loading condition — or a link to your digital loading files
Best suited to — motion-sensitive trades
Container and feeder operators, ro-ro, heavy-lift and project cargo, and any vessel carrying motion-sensitive cargo. This is a safety and claims conversation as much as a fuel one — which usually means a different buyer in the same company. Seakeeping pairs with ABB Ability™ OCTOPUS — Marine Advisory System for the combined predicted-and-measured picture.
Also available: SPS2GRIB — exports the SPOS forecast in GRIB format for display in other onboard systems. Seakeeping and SPS2GRIB are paid add-on modules, not part of base SPOS.
It works when your connection doesn't
Cloud-based voyage optimisation assumes a fast, reliable, affordable link to shore. Plenty of ships don't have one.
Designed for older tonnage, tramp trades and thin satcom
Weather arrives by email or HTTP, you subscribe only to the sea areas you sail, and every calculation happens onboard. SPOS runs as a Windows application on typical bridge or ship's-office hardware. If the link drops, the Master still has a working optimisation tool.
- Modest hardware requirements — it runs on the bridge PC you already have
- Area-limited weather subscriptions keep satcom cost predictable
- All optimisation computed locally, on the vessel
- Patches delivered by HTTP, or in chunks by email for mail-only vessels
We'll confirm the current ABB-supported operating-system matrix for your fleet as part of scoping — don't take a legacy spec sheet to your IT department.
Value for every role that touches a voyage
Decision-making has shifted from the bridge to shore-based performance teams — but a rollout still lives or dies on whether the Master finds it useful. Sell to shore, deploy to ship, and never bypass the Master.
Vessel types: bulk carriers, tankers, container and feeder vessels, ro-ro, general cargo, heavy-lift and project cargo, gas carriers.
Every avoided headwind is fuel you don't burn
Weather-optimised routing trims fuel and emissions by sailing the most efficient track for the conditions. Sitting alongside SEA-SPEED foul-release coating and Vesselity hull analytics, it closes the loop on EEXI and annual CII performance across a fleet — a clean hull, well-made bridge decisions, and data you can verify.
Start on one ship. Grow without changing supplier.
SPOS is the onboard element of ABB's routing portfolio. As your needs grow, the same supplier covers the rest — and the same partner handles it for you.
ABB engineering, delivered locally
SepcoTech is a trusted partner to the maritime industry worldwide, supplying solutions that improve safety, efficiency and compliance at sea. We deliver ABB Ability™ SPOS with the hands-on service our customers expect.
Licensing & onboarding
Vessel and end-user licensing, installation guidance, weather-area configuration and mail-gateway setup — the practical steps that stop a rollout stalling in week two.
Crew briefing
Master and officer briefing, so the system is used rather than ignored. Crew resistance is the single most common cause of a stalled weather-routing rollout — we plan for it.
Measured pilots
A defined pilot on two vessels with an agreed measurement method, so you see real numbers on your own trade before you commit anything fleet-wide.
First-line support
SepcoTech answers first, in your time zone, with ABB's global marine support organisation and 24/7 weather room behind us.
ABB Ability™ SPOS — FAQ
What is ABB Ability™ SPOS?
How much fuel can we save?
Is SPOS a navigation system or an ECDIS replacement?
Does it need a fast internet connection?
What does it run on?
How is it licensed?
Will our Masters actually use it?
Does SPOS handle EU ETS, FuelEU or CII reporting?
Can we integrate SPOS data with our own systems?
Can we try it before committing?
Routing intelligence, straight from ABB
ABB's own overview of its routing services — the vessel- and voyage-performance intelligence that SPOS brings to the bridge.
Find out what it's worth on your fleet
Tell us your fleet, your trades and roughly what you burn, and we'll build the numbers with you — then propose a pilot you can measure.
ABB Ability™, SPOS, Routeguard, Fleetguard and OCTOPUS are trademarks of ABB. ABB Ability™ SPOS is a decision-support tool and not a navigation system. Routes calculated by SPOS give a general indication of tracks to sail and are not checked for navigational hazards. The Master of each vessel remains responsible for safe navigation at all times and must verify routes against approved, up-to-date charts before sailing, and ensure adequate up-to-date ENC coverage at all compilation scales. Fuel-saving figures are as published by ABB and vary by vessel type, season and operating conditions; they are not a guarantee of results. Product capability, module availability and supported operating systems are confirmed per fleet at the time of quotation.