17 Apr 2024
Life at sea is challenging enough without the added concern of not being connected to the rest of the world. With long hours, exposure to harsh weather conditions, and potentially rough working environment, the need for effective crew welfare programmes cannot be overemphasised. Besides increasing crew satisfaction and safety, such onboard programmes are vital to raise productivity levels and operational efficiency – a win-win situation for everyone.
Connectivity is vitally important to seafarers and greater availability is improving health and well-being. The latest Seafarer Happiness report from Mission to Seafarers found that the current happiness level in relation to connectivity at sea is 6.94 out of 10, up from 6.36 in 2023. This uptick in seafarer happiness is significant after a continued decline in the average happiness level throughout 2023.
The vital role played by crew connectivity in seafarer well-being has been underscored when the International Maritime Organization (IMO) approved measures aimed at enhancing crew communications for seafarers impacted by the war in Ukraine. These measures were put forward by a number of maritime industry groups and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) – demonstrating the strength of feeling within the whole maritime industry that crew should be able to communicate with home and loved ones and have access to information sources while at sea.
A Well-Structured Crew Welfare Programme
Crucial to the success of any endeavor is a well-structured plan. A crew welfare programme, at the very least, must consider:
A Turning Point: Reliable Communications at Sea
Digitalisation is paving the way for diversity and inclusion, increasing gender parity and creating a whole new niche of jobs for female talent. Increasing numbers of women are joining the seafaring ranks and technology is playing its part in supporting women at sea. Satellite communications have made it possible to easily keep in touch with home and family in real-time and, post-pandemic, many maritime companies now provide free or low-cost internet and voice calls to crew members. Digital solutions and new videoconferencing applications, which have been specially designed to operate in low bandwidth environments, enable seafarers to feel more supported in this challenging working environment.
Another social shift that is radically changing the inherent working of the maritime industry is recruitment and retention of crew members from the next generation. Crew surveys have revealed that some crew would change jobs for better internet access even if there was no extra salary on offer. Other industry surveys have identified a clear divide between vessels that provide free or cost effective access, versus those that do not, with increasing numbers of seafarers stating that they check what access they will have before accepting new contracts – a trend widely predicted to grow.
An Innovative Voucher System by IEC Telecom Group
IEC Telecom Group is committed to providing cost-effective connectivity services to its maritime customers, regardless of the vessel type or budget size. To ensure that internet consumption is operationally feasible, IEC Telecom supports maritime companies with a bespoke crew voucher system that can fully monitor, manage, and set data consumption limits for individual crew members or vessels.
This is a critical functionality to consider instead of an open network access policy onboard a vessel. Open internet access for crew can potentially exhaust the capacity of the internet available to a vessel, lead to abuse or overuse of the accessible bandwidth, and even significantly affect critical communications between business users.
With a crew voucher system in place, each crew member can avail a pre-determined data allowance to stay in touch with loved ones and carry out essential online tasks while business users can avail uninterrupted network access for critical communications.
Crew members can access the voucher system via an online portal with a unique username and password, view their available data allowance, and determine when to coordinate with the ICT management or ship captain in accordance with the onboard network access and allowance renewal policy.
Standard User Scenarios: Completely Customised Options for Crew
After connecting to the captive portal of IEC Telecom’s voucher system with individual credentials, crew members can access the following completely customised options.
Pre-determined Allowance
The ICT manager can choose to assign user account renewals on a monthly basis, bi-weekly basis, or even by GB.
For example, these settings are applied to a vessel with an unlimited contract and 8 crew members, each with a 1 GB allowance and renewal due every 15 days. This is typical for a shipping vessel with crew staying on board for a long period of time.
Daily Limited Allowance
The ICT manager can choose to assign user account renewals on a daily basis by GB, which will auto-renew in 24 hours.
Temporary Allowance
The ICT manager can choose to assign user account allowance for short-term use by temporary onboard crew. In some cases, such as oil and gas offshore rigs, crew members may visit only for a day to perform inspections, deliver spare parts, or perform technical maintenance.
For example, these settings are applied to a vessel where crew has an allowance of 500 MB for 24 hours – with the cut-off time at 2 am.
Unlimited Allowance
The ICT manager can choose to assign unlimited data allowance, but restrict the bandwidth usage after a certain allotment has been consumed. For example, the download and upload speeds can be set to 500 Kbps and 200 Kbps, respectively.
This option ensures that crew members do not use high-bandwidth-consuming applications, such as video streaming. Crew members can still use a number of communication channels, such as emails and messengers (WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.). Voice calls can still be supported in a mode with limited bandwidth if applied to a high-speed network. In case of LEO or GEO VSAT, crew calling over IP can be made possible, but not on L-band due to inherent limited network speed.
This set-up is useful when the vessel has speed constraints (it is limited to the L-band) or needs to stay within the specific airtime package per vessel.
Premium User Scenarios: Completely Customised Options for Management
After connecting to the captive portal of IEC Telecom’s voucher system with the organisation’s specified credentials, the vessel managers and maritime company owners can access the following completely customised options.
Custom Login Page with Logo
The maritime company can choose to include the logo and brand messages on the login page of the captive portal. The management can also add an acceptable usage policy section with a mandatory accept button before users can be provided with network access.
Detailed Usage Reports
The maritime company can choose to generate device and user statistics reports. The default options include:
>> Device Reports – Usage reports based on device
>> Usage Report – Total usage based on Hour/Day/Month
>> Captive Ports Reports – Report statistics of number of users, session and usage.
Moreover, system can generate customized reporting based on the add-ons, activated by the customer.