Here’s a suggestion for a relatively simple way to stop the cheating on crew changes during Covid-19.
Crews are often not allowed to leave ships during the Covid-19 crisis, and are either coerced into signing renewal contracts or simply denied the ability to travel home. How to stop it?
The proposal: get P&I insurers to deny coverage until crew members have been changed. It’s clearly a safety issue to have continuously-serving crew who do not get a mandated break.
It’s simple, and doesn’t require a lot of collaboration between countries, shipowners, and international agencies. And enforcement is quick and easy and dire for the shipowners and cargo owners. No one will ship with a carrier who does not have P&I insurance.
I thin it has real promise, and only needs a few P&I executives to make it happen.
Andrew Craig-Bennett September 14, 2020
Link: https://splash247.com/a-practical-way-to-deal-with-the-shameful-maltreatment-of-600000-people/
Previous story: https://mymaritimeblog.wordpress.com/2020/09/10/flag-states-attacked-for-weakness-on-crew-change/
Supply Chain and Logistics 