It’s long been a problem for seafarers. Due to Covid restrictions on entering and leaving a country, they could not go home after their shift on the vessel nominally ended. They had to stay with the ship because of the covid restrictions.
In China, that’s ending now. The new rules allow seafarers to leave the ship and fly home. There won’t be a requirement for quarantine.
This is good news for seafarers.
Let’s hope continued progress can be made in working conditions for crews.
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.
Supply Chain and Logistics 