ship planner
Ship planners manage the performance of a vessel. They ensure the safety of the vessel and its cargo, its operationality and link available vessels to available cargos in order to maximise the profitability of the voyages. They ensure that each container ship is loaded to its optimal capacity, while keeping berth times and handling costs to a minimum. They also plan the maintenance and overhaul of the ship, as well as the crew needed.
ship planner ship planners manage the performance of a vessel. They ensure the safety of the vessel and its cargo, its operationality and link available vessels to available cargos in order to maximise the profitability of the voyages. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.50 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include international regulations for cargo handling, maritime law, International Maritime Organisation conventions, national regulations on handling cargo, types of maritime vessels.
Pay in the UK
UK: median £33,508 a year for Transport and distribution clerks and assistants (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)
Middle half of full-time jobs: £27,996 to £39,496 a year
UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 4134). ONS rates this estimate precise. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)
Pay in India (occupation group)
Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Clerical support workers” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only ship planner, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.
Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 4. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report
Top skills
Knowledge you'll build
- Transportation
- English Language
- Mathematics
- Geography
- Law and Government
- Computers and Electronics
- Administration and Management
- Engineering and Technology
What you'd actually do
- Define regional or local transportation planning problems or priorities.
- Participate in public meetings or hearings to explain planning proposals, to gather feedback from those affected by projects, or to achieve consensus on project designs.
- Prepare reports or recommendations on transportation planning.
- Collaborate with engineers to research, analyze, or resolve complex transportation design issues.
- Recommend transportation system improvements or projects, based on economic, population, land-use, or traffic projections.
- Develop computer models to address transportation planning issues.
Tools & technology you'd use
Frequently asked questions
What does ship planner do?
Ship planners manage the performance of a vessel. They ensure the safety of the vessel and its cargo, its operationality and link available vessels to available cargos in order to maximise the profitability of the voyages. They ensure that each container ship is loaded to its optimal capacity, while keeping berth times and handling costs to a minimum. They also plan the maintenance and overhaul of the ship, as well as the crew needed.
What skills does ship planner need?
The most in-demand skills for this role include international regulations for cargo handling, maritime law, International Maritime Organisation conventions, national regulations on handling cargo, types of maritime vessels, vessel stability principles. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.
Will AI replace ship planner?
Our AI-durability model gives ship planner a score of 0.50 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.