How to swap vessel crews?
A number of companies and maritime organisations have joined forces to investigate how crew changes can be made possible during the Covid-19 pandemic, said Henrik Jensen, who founded Danica Crewing Services in Odessa (Ukraine) in 2008. The company runs offices in Hamburg (Germany), Ukraine, Russia and Latvia.
Howerver, global travel restrictions and quarantine requirements are proving difficult to overcome. Part of the problem is that each country has its own version of measures in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Another big hurdle is the lack of commercial flights to facilitate crew changeovers.
Furthermore, only 15,000 of the world fleet of 75,000 vessels are in the liner trade with relatively fixed schedules. The consortium is in the process of identifying key ports and investigating flight charter options.
Jensen: “We want to develop a common standard policy which, if followed, would allow seafarers to cross borders and move to their vessels, and to reduce the risk to existing crew members of bringing the virus onboard.” (mw)