Of the many interesting articles always found on Ship Talk, you will find quite few dealing with lack of seafarers. Which, I am sure you have heard, as a regular visitor you might be, that I am pretty much sick and tired of hearing about this. If you want professional seafarers from North America and / or Europe - to support your business now and in the future - give us an incentive. Companies want it all without working for it, just like everyone else, no news there. Anyways, here goes, an interesting article nonetheless...
Shipping Manning Slammed - 25 October 2006, from shiptalk.com
The American P&I Club has issued a scathing attack on shipping’s cost-cutting strategies and the dramatic reduction of qualified seafarers and surveyors.
Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association of Average Adjusters in New York, American Club VP, John Poulson derided the “shocking and unacceptable” investment shortfall in people and training by many “self-centred” shipping players.
He added that some ship operators are deferring maintenance and repairs, while “too many ships of poor standard have been allowed to continue trading when they should have been scrapped”.
He further explained that “the traditional source of surveyors is rapidly drying up, quite simply because seafaring is becoming a Third World occupation”.
Given the dwindling source of surveyors, Poulson asserted that the blue-chip surveying companies that remain must redouble efforts to find and train suitable candidates.
This in turn means that “underwriters of all classes – hull and machinery, P&I, cargo, etc. – must be prepared to pay a premium for services that will allow such companies to train the people needed to fulfil these [surveyor] roles. There is a dire need for investment,” Poulson concluded.