On my ships in the past working the spot markets with one cargo aboard, the route to take from A to B over an ocean and waypoints in between was planned by the 2nd officer. It was often the shortest route with due account of currents/tides, etc. The next question was what speed to use, which, apart from fixed costs, depended on the cost of fuel and freight earned. The primary objective was to do the trip at minimum cost and maximum profit or minimum loss and then slow steaming at low speed/consumption was often the answer. Only in discussion between ship and shore office the best answer could be found = what speed/consumption to use. I don’t know about the liner trades between hubs of all sorts and a fixed timetable. In this ONE Apus case I still think too high speed and bad watch keeping caused the incident.