By
Sarfaraz Alam
Blogs
•
5
min read
Revolutionize Bulk Chartering with Digital Solutions
Having spent years deeply embedded in the logistics operations of conventional industries and in particular the petrochemical companies across the GCC and engaging directly with seasoned professionals from supply chain strategists to heads of bulk divisions, I’ve come to truly understand the immense pressure they or their teams face. To call them ‘challenges’ feels like an understatement. What these professionals manage daily goes far beyond routine operations; it is mission-critical to their company’s global competitiveness and long-term growth.
This documents is written for those leaders who know that outdated, manual, and fragmented processes can no longer sustain the future of logistics but yet to discover how to tackle their fragmented use cases through one single digital platform. It is a call to action for those ready to shift from inefficiency to agility, from complexity to clarity, and from cost centers to value-driven ecosystems.
Today, digitalizing bulk liquid cargo export operations is not only feasible, it is imperative. Few industries stand to benefit more from this shift than the petrochemical sector, especially when it comes to bulk vessel chartering in an era where optimizing freight and operational costs is no longer optional; it is a strategic necessity.
For decades, bulk chartering has been hindered by delays, heavy dependence on intermediaries, lack of transparency, fragmented documentation, and slow decision cycles. But these obstacles are no longer immovable.
Platforms like HashMove ELP are transforming the landscape, from charter initiation to voyage execution. Real-time visibility, intelligent workflows, AI-powered recommendations, and seamless collaboration are no longer a future ideal. They are here, and they are working.
In this paper, I highlight the critical inefficiencies within petrochemical bulk logistics and offer a clear, actionable roadmap to turn these cost-heavy burdens into powerful, strategic enablers of profitability and performance
Break Free from Manual Chaos
Like its mentioned earlier, for decades, logistics teams in petrochemical companies have managed bulk vessel chartering and agent coordination manually and purely by their experience in dealing with charter vessel brokers. While this approach may have served its time, it is now a major barrier to efficiency and profitability.
The manual or semi-manual processes within their operations lead to unstructured information, delayed approvals, reliance on brokers capabilities, fragmented documentation, and limited visibility of vessels availability. These inefficiencies drive up costs, slow down shipments, and restrict strategic decision-making.
At large, the handling of Liquid Bulk Cargo typically follows two core approaches:
- Receiving demand and then producing accordingly, or
- Managing total production capacity across multiple buyers as per the company's internal SOPs.
In today’s environment, where margins are tight and speed is everything, continuing with outdated methods is no longer sustainable.
Both models demand precision, speed, and realtime coordination, something manual systems simply cannot support at scale. It has limitations and often leave these professionals to make compromised decisions due to inability of viewing every aspect of such activity through a single platform.
Platforms like HashMove ELP bring automation, visibility, and intelligence into the process, turning what was once a reactive and manual task into a streamlined, data-driven operation.
Below, I’ve outlined the key problem areas in bulk charter bookings, along with a cost and timesaving analysis that highlights why change is no longer optional, it’s essential.
Brokers Engagement
First and far most, one of the most significant pain points in bulk chartering is the reliance on brokers for vessel bookings. Traditionally, companies engage with brokers through emails and manual follow-ups, filling up the required information to obtain the freight rates. This exercise often lead to delays, confusion, and a lack of transparency in prices and its true comparison, as we say apple-to-apple .
With HashMove’s Freight Procurement Modules for Brokers Engagement, we eliminate these inefficiencies by offering a centralized, structured platform where the vessels charter offers can be received, compared, and evaluated efficiently.
By using ELP, petrochemical companies can extend their portal directly to vessel owners, allowing them to engage in direct communication with the companies.
One more advantage is that the ecosystem of charter vessel brokers is also extended to the platform, enabling the inclusion of a wider range of brokers. This improves the chances of securing better and faster rates, rather than relying solely on a limited number of agents. The Broker Portal streamlines this entire process, reducing reliance on emails and ensuring that every broker interaction is tracked.
HashMove’s digital Freight Procurement Module streamlines vessel chartering by eliminating email-based broker negotiations and enabling structured, real-time quote comparisons. It expands broker reach, ensures transparency, and accelerates decision-making with an auditable, centralized platform. This leads to faster bookings, better freight rates, and greater control over procurement operations.
Automation
The chartering process in the petrochemical industry is inherently complex, requiring coordination among various stakeholders, including vessel brokers, internal teams, and external partners. Traditionally, the process has been fragmented and reliant on time-consuming manual tasks, such as checking vessel availability, obtaining approvals, and managing constant communication across different teams. Each of these steps can introduce inefficiencies, increasing the risk of delays and costing valuable time.
With HashMove's workflow automation, these challenges are addressed by creating a streamlined and transparent process. Key milestones like Laycan (the period when a vessel is available for loading) and vessel readiness are automatically tracked, providing real-time updates to all stakeholders involved.
This ensures everyone is aligned and that no critical deadlines are missed. The integration of Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) predictions adds another layer of precision to the process.
By accurately forecasting arrival times, companies can optimize their logistics plans and avoid unnecessary delays, further improving overall efficiency.
Additionally, the platform incorporates automated workflow approvals that connect Sales, Logistics, and Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) teams through a single platform. In a traditional setup, these approvals often require endless back-andforth emails and meetings, slowing down the process and creating unnecessary bottlenecks.
HashMove eliminates these inefficiencies by automating approvals, ensuring that all relevant departments are instantly notified when their input is needed. This not only speeds up decision-making but also enhances collaboration, as teams can review and approve tasks in real time, reducing the chances of miscommunication.
Overall, by digitizing and automating the chartering process, HashMove helps organizations improve coordination, reduce delays, and eliminate reliance on outdated manual methods
Vessel Validation Repository
Another critical aspect of bulk chartering is ensuring that only compliant vessels are selected. HashMove ELP introduces a vessel validation repository, which integrates internal compliance checklists such as GPCA standards. This built-in validation system ensures that vessels are thoroughly vetted before they are considered for booking.
The repository's role-based access control ensures that only authorized personnel can approve vessel selection, improving accountability and reducing compliance risks
Smart Notifications
In a high-stakes environment like bulk chartering, timely action is essential. HashMove’s intelligent notification system ensures that every critical milestone, whether it's a Laycan deadline, pending approval, or an outstanding signature, is communicated in real-time. This proactive approach helps teams stay on top of their tasks and mitigates the risk of delays, ensuring that no critical step is missed
Centralized Documentation
In the world of bulk chartering, misplacing or losing critical documents such as charter party agreements (CPAs) or fixture notes can cause significant delays. HashMove’s centralized documentation repository eliminates this risk by providing a secure, accessible location for all necessary documentation.
Version control and role-based access rights allow for seamless document retrieval and sharing across teams, ensuring that the right people have access to the right documents at the right time
Dashboard & KPIs
To make informed decisions, leadership teams need visibility into key performance metrics. HashMove ELP provides real-time dashboards and performance KPIs that track crucial aspects of the chartering process, including CPA cycle timelines, broker response rates, and vessel scheduling accuracy.
These data-driven insights empower management to monitor progress, identify bottlenecks, and optimize freight sourcing strategies, ultimately reducing demurrage costs and enhancing operational efficiency.
Operational Efficiency
The digitalization of bulk chartering with HashMove ELP leads to a significant reduction in manual effort and time spent on each step. By automating negotiations, approvals, documentation, and tracking, companies can cut chartering timelines by up to 50%.
This time-saving not only reduces the administrative burden but also allows companies to secure vessels more quickly, often at better rates. Faster decision-making means less time spent waiting for approvals and confirmation, which in turn leads to greater operational efficiency.
Compliance & Traceability
HashMove ELP ensures that every step of the chartering process is logged and traceable. From approvals to interactions with brokers, the platform provides a comprehensive audit trail that supports internal controls and readiness for audits.
The easy retrieval of compliance documentation and CPAs further strengthens accountability, reduces legal and reputational risks, and ensures companies are always audit-ready.
Stakeholder Collaboration
Collaboration between departments like Sales, Logistics, Legal, and Finance is crucial in the chartering process. HashMove ELP brings all these stakeholders together on a single platform, eliminating silos and ensuring that all teams work with a shared source of truth.
Integrated workflows and unified documentation improve communication and reduce redundant tasks, ensuring that everyone is aligned and that decisions are made faster and more accurately.
Customer Engagement
Finally, HashMove ELP enhances transparency and customer engagement through a dedicated Customer Portal. Clients can track the progress of their shipments in real-time, approve rates, and access all necessary documentation at their convenience. This transparency builds trust and improves customer satisfaction, as clients are no longer left in the dark about shipment progress.
Additionally, real-time ETA predictions help customers better plan their supply chains and prepare for incoming shipments.
50% Costs Improvement
Implementing HashMove ELP typically results in a 50% improvement in the bulk vessel chartering process. This improvement is evident across several key areas, including negotiation, approval, documentation, and finalization. The process is simplified, with automation cutting down the time spent on manual coordination and verification. Base Time for Chartering Process (Before HashMove ELP)
Before HashMove ELP, the average time required to complete a vessel chartering process can be broken down into four phases:
Cost Savings Based on Time Reduction
ASSUMPTION:
Each hour of the vessel chartering process costs the company 2,000 SAR. Given the total time saved of 5000 hours for 100 shipments, the cost savings would be
TIME SAVINGS FOR LARGE-SCALE EXPORT
Thus, the time saved through HashMove ELP’s digitalization of the bulk chartering process results in a total cost saving of 50,000,000 SAR. This is a significant reduction in operational costs that enhances profitability.
To estimate the time savings for a large-scale export scenario of 1 million MT of liquid cargo, let’s assume the following:
Average consignment per shipment: 10,000 MT Total export requirement: 1,000,000 MT
Time saved per consignment (50% improvement): 50 hours per shipment
Conclusion
Like I said before, I’ve spent years observing how logistics teams in the petrochemical industry navigate the complex world of bulk vessel chartering—hundreds of shipments, millions of metric tons, and countless hours spent on coordination, documentation, broker negotiations, and internal approvals. And despite all this effort, many companies still operate with limited visibility, fragmented communication, and minimal pricing flexibility.
This has always struck me as unsustainable, especially in today’s fast-paced global markets. At HashMove, we’ve built an integrated digital platform that completely reimagines how bulk chartering should work. From rate procurement and direct engagement with vessel owners, to automated workflow approvals, centralized documentation, live tracking, and invoice reconciliation—it’s all connected, all in one place.
Let me put things into perspective.
If you're moving 1 million metric tons per year across 100+ bulk shipments, you’re likely burning thousands of hours just managing the process manually. With HashMove’s automation, we’ve seen companies reclaim over 5,000 hours annually. At a conservative internal cost of 2,000 SAR per hour, that’s already 10 million SAR saved each year. But the story doesn’t end there.
These numbers only scratch the surface. What’s even more transformative is the real-time visibility the platform provides. Suddenly, everyone—from top leadership to the execution teams on the ground—has complete clarity on what’s happening, when, and why. That kind of transparency leads to faster decisions, better coordination, and a far more agile organization.
But there’s another layer I want to highlight, something I believe we often overlook.
By expanding the digital ecosystem to include more vetted vessel owners and service providers, we open the door to real market-based pricing. Instead of relying on a handful of brokers or static vendor relationships, companies get access to dynamic, competitive rates. Even a small optimization, let’s say just $2 per metric ton, translates into an additional 2 million SAR saved annually. Combine that with operational efficiency, and the overall impact becomes massive.
This isn’t just about technology. It’s about shifting our mindset. It's about recognizing that digitalization isn’t a future plan, it’s a current need. It’s how petrochemical companies will stay competitive, control costs, and build smarter, more resilient supply chains.
I truly believe that now is the time to act. Because in this industry, standing still is the same as falling behind.
Message to the Industry Leaders
I often find myself reflecting on this paradox: Despite clear inefficiencies, rising operational pressures, and quantifiable savings through digital transformation, many logistics teams, especially in the petrochemical sector—still cling to old ways of working.
Why?
Is it fear? A sense of job insecurity? Or simply the comfort of familiarity until change is forced upon them? Let me explain.
For years, I’ve watched how logistics teams manage bulk vessel chartering, hundreds of shipments, millions of tons, and endless cycles of manual coordination, broker negotiations, documentation chaos, and approvals that go in circles. Despite all this effort, what do we see? Fragmented communication, limited visibility, and pricing that’s more guesswork than science
It’s exhausting. It’s expensive. And frankly, it’s outdated.
At HashMove, we didn’t just build a digital platform, we reimagined the entire experience. We connected every part of the process: rate procurement, engagement with vessel owners, workflow approvals, documentation, live tracking, and even invoice reconciliation. The result? A logistics operation that is faster, leaner, and significantly more intelligent.
We’ve seen the numbers, over 5,000 man-hours reclaimed, millions in cost savings, and real-time transparency across the board. This isn’t theoretical. It’s how forward-thinking organizations will bound to see.
And yet, in many companies, change is still met with hesitation.
Not because the solution doesn’t work. Not because the savings aren’t real. But because change brings uncertainty.
Many logistics professionals worry:
- “If everything becomes automated, what happens to my role?”
- “Will digital systems replace the need for what I do manually?”
These fears are valid. But they miss a bigger truth. Digital transformation doesn’t replace people, it amplifies their value. It frees them from mundane, repetitive tasks so they can focus on strategic decisions, supplier relationships, and driving innovation. The fear of being replaced shouldn’t paralyze us, it should motivate us to evolve. But here's where the real responsibility lies: with leadership.
Transformation doesn’t happen from the bottom up. It requires bold decisions from the top. If management does not make digitalization a strategic priority, most teams will continue “business as usual” until disruption becomes unavoidable.
The truth is, change only becomes urgent when it’s mandated, when leaders say, “We will not stay stuck in outdated systems. We will lead this change.”
Because in logistics, standing still isn’t safe. It’s falling behind.
Digitalization is no longer an option to explore “someday.” It’s the foundation for staying competitive today. The tools are here. The results are proven. What’s needed now is courage, from leadership, from teams, from all of us—to let go of the old and embrace what’s next.
