AT THE PROW
An ASM publication Editorial Director: Sam Chambers sam@asiashippingmedia.com Associate Editor: Jason Jiang jason@asiashippingmedia.com Correspondents: Athens: Ionnis Nikolaou Bogota: Richard McColl Cairo: Camelia Ewiss Cape Town: Joe Cunliffe Dubai: Yousra Shaikh Genoa: Nicola Capuzzo Hong Kong: Alfred Romann London: Paul Collins New York: Suzanne Smith Oslo: Hans Thaulow San Francisco: Donal Scully Shanghai: Colin Quek Singapore: Grant Rowles Sydney: Ross White-Chinnery Taipei: David Green Tokyo: Masanori Kikuchi Contributors: Nick Berriff, Andrew CraigBennett, Paul French, Chris Garman, Lars Jensen, Jeffrey Landsberg, Dagfinn Lunde, Mike Meade, Peter Sand, Neville Smith, Eytan Uliel Editorial material should be sent to sam@asiashippingmedia.com or mailed to 24 Route de Fuilla, Sahorre, 66360, France Commercial Director: Grant Rowles grant@asiashippingmedia.com Maritime ceo advertising agents are also based in Japan, Korea, Scandinavia and Greece — to contact a local agent email grant@asiashippingmedia.com for details MEDIA KITS ARE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD AT: www.asiashippingmedia.com All commercial material should be sent to grant@asiashippingmedia.com or mailed to 30 Cecil Street, #19-08 Prudential Tower Singapore 049712 Design: Mixa Liu Printers: Allion Printing, Hong Kong Subscriptions: A $120 subscription is charged for 2020’s four issues of Maritime ceo magazine. Email sales@asiashippingmedia.com for subscription enquiries. Copyright © Asia Shipping Media (ASM) 2020 www.asiashippingmedia.com Although every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this review is correct, the publishers accept no liability for any inaccuracies or omissions that may occur. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the copyright owner. For reprints of specific articles contact grant@ asiashippingmedia.com Twitter: @Splash_247 LinkedIn: Maritime CEO Forum Facebook: Splash Maritime & Offshore News
ISSUE TWO 2020
Remote surveys are here to stay
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s you might have noted from the rather different cover image, this is a special Zoom-style issue of the magazine where we bring readers highlights from our ongoing popular Maritime CEO Leader Series, produced in association with our pals at Ocean Technologies Group. Thus far, I’ve really enjoyed putting this video series together and reckon it’ll be part of our own media platform’s ‘new normal’ offering even once the pandemic recedes. The fact is we all have to get used to the swift digital changes ushered in recent months - they are here to stay. I came across a Reuters article recently that was very negative about the rise in the use of remote surveys taking place via live streaming, a necessary trend thanks to movement restrictions brought about the coronavirus. Increasingly ship’s captains and other crewmembers are walking around a vessel with a phone camera switched on to show specific areas for checks, drawing on previous inspection reports that have highlighted issues. “The effectiveness of virtual inspections only buys time, especially as many vessels in the global fleet are ageing. Remote surveys can also take longer and require weeks of work to process versus a few days for an on-site inspection,” the article suggested, a point of view I do not agree with at all. As with so many parts of shipping, the coronavirus has sped up digital ways of doing surveys and it will, I imagine, continue to be an important way of auditing a vessel even when the pandemic recedes. This virus episode has forced
the experiment of working remotely on most of us and many shipmanagers tell me they have been testing and using remote auditing and focused inspections with the technology working. Moreover, the time saving in not having to travel is enormous and in an office more experts can look at the footage than just one, often biased, subjective and self-interested hired-hand surveyor. Class executives are increasingly saying that the way they go about their business has now changed forever in the space of just a few months. Remote auditing, perhaps not to completely replace physical auditing/ surveying/inspecting, is here to stay and it will enormously complement the monitoring presence onboard. Remote surveying with actual footage available like the bodycam footage police are using now to prove what actually happened is a fantastic opportunity for shipping. Now can we please embrace new technology in our industry and not try to revert to how things were while moaning endlessly about how competent people onboard and in the shipping office used to be in the good old days? ●
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