Manager’s Corner

by Shashank Jahagirdar

Dear Colleagues,

It feels great to see engagement and enthusiasm amongst our colleagues onboard and ashore after MTTO newsletter was reinstated. Your feedback helps us raise our own bar so please continue to share your thoughts. It is engagement like these which re-emphases that our team fully understands and lives up to the new Purpose.

Time flies as we see 1st quarter of 2021 coming to an end. The new crewing team settled down in short time, surprising all of us with their dedication and passion towards our seafarers. Right from onboarding to working with new faces virtually & implementing Compas, they have proved that nothing is impossible if you have the right attitude and willingness to take up challenges.

The fierce spread of COVID has indeed worsened the situation for crewing operations but we are operating at full throttle as we understand our seafarers have been making huge personal sacrifices throughout this pandemic. We recognize them as our unsung heroes who are playing a vital role in keeping global trade routes open and it is this realization that drives our team to do better every day in arranging timely relief.

Amid raging second wave of COVID, our crewing team is successfully performing crew changes by liaising with concern authorities. Many countries are tightening the security and air travel restriction continue to increase. COVID test requirement is dynamic, and airlines/port/countries are revising the requirement after seeing daily increase in COVID cases. Team is keeping our seafarers updated on latest developments and planning logistics after a thorough check. This is to ensure seafarer does not face any hassle during travel. Though many international organizations declared seafarers as essential or key workers, there have been very limited involvement from individual seafaring nations for providing vaccinations to seafarers on priority. Our management team continues to engage with concern authorities and are taking up the initiative to get our seafarers vaccinated on priority.

We will go live with our new marine travel partner ATPI in near future. ATPI group is one of the leading travel partners in the world, especially in marine travels. ATPI’s expertise in marine travels will not only help us sustain cost leadership but we are confident that shift to ATPI will bring efficiencies in travel bookings for our seafarers. Project Team & Crewing operations are working together to ensure smooth transition.

The physical health concerns that follow COVID-19, for seafarers onboard or transiting between their vessel and home, as well as for their families can cause an increase in overall anxiety. Many of these risks can be mitigated with the stringent application of health, hygiene, and social distancing guidelines widely available. However, the uncertainty of the situation, extended time away from friends and family, fears for one’s own and family’s safety and wellbeing can also cause an increase in stress and anxiety and have a compounding effect on one’s mental, emotional and physical wellbeing. Times like this highlight how crucial it is that we come together and reflect on how we can take good care of our mental health and support each other.

We acknowledge and appreciate our seafarer’s resilience during these difficult times. We request all our seafarers to continue to keep their mental/physical health and safety as priority. We wish to see you leave your home with a smile and come back to your family with a smile. Together we can make the difference so let us continue to work with same spirit which is in line with our new Purpose.