Crewtoo News

The winners of ISWAN's International Seafarers' Welfare Awards 2016 were announced on 24th June at a high-profile ceremony held in Manila, the Philippines. The ceremony forms part of ISWAN's celebrations in the Philippines for the IMO Day of the Seafarer. The awards were presented by IMO Secretary General Mr Kitack Lim to seven recipients who have provided exceptional services for the welfare and wellbeing of seafarers. The Welfare Personality of the Year Award is named after Dr Dierk Lindemann who sadly passed away on 17 March 2014. Dr Lindemann served as the Shipowner's Group spokesperson at the ILO and took a lead role in the adoption of the Maritime Labour Convention. Shipping Company of the Year: Masamichi Morooka - Chairman of ICS.

Bluetide Communications’ Access Management Portal (AMP) application for wireless network management is changing the way workboat operators manage data, crew and costs. Thousands of miles, and weeks or months out at sea, the next best thing to physically being there, is an electronic connection home, and today, mariners increasingly are reluctant to board vessels without access to some form of it. Internet access and cheap global roaming SIM cards top the list of desired amenities in recent surveys of seafarers.

Seafarer social media site Crewtoo, part of KVH Industries, Inc., has published the results of its second Crewtoo Seafarers Happiness Index report detailing job satisfaction at sea. Designed to monitor and benchmark seafarer satisfaction levels via 10 key questions, the report shows a seafarer satisfaction level of 6.44 on a scale of 1 to 10, up 0.02 from the inaugural survey published in May this year. One surprising issue detailed in the second report is that seafarers sometimes dread port calls because of the increase in workload caused by the many audits and inspections when a ship is in dock. This increase in workload at port also caused a drop in satisfaction levels towards shore leave, as the amount of work often eats into the time available for relaxation.

Specialist marine insurance intermediary Seacurus says that overall confidence in the successful implementation of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC) should not conceal the fact that there is continuing concern over the risk of abandonment and the timely payment of crew wages. Thomas Brown, managing director of Seacurus, says, “Recent figures from the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Port State Control indicate that the MLC Convention is being well-enforced, with 113 ship detentions relating to MLC deficiencies recorded since MLC 2006 entered into force on 20 August, 2013. “Overall, it seems that progress is being made and that MLC can deliver on its promises.

KVH Industries, Inc., acquired Videotel, a producer of high-quality training films and e-Learning services for the commercial maritime industry. Servicing over 11,000 vessels, Videotel is a market leader in the provision of maritime training services, offering video, animation, e-Learning computer-based training (CBT), and interactive distance learning courses. “The acquisition of Videotel is an important addition to our portfolio of services targeting the needs of commercial seafarers and supports our strategic vision of extending our maritime broadband service to include delivering premium content to vessels,” said Martin Kits van Heyningen, KVH’s chief executive officer.

KVH Industries, Inc., (KVHI) today announced that it has acquired Videotel, a producer of training films and e-Learning services for the commercial maritime industry. Videotel services more than 11,000 vessels in the provision of maritime training services, offering video, animation, e-Learning computer-based training (CBT) and interactive distance learning courses. “The acquisition of Videotel is an important addition to our portfolio of services targeting the needs of commercial…

Crewtoo, an online network dedicated to seafarers, launched an online maritime jobs board. Founded by KVH Media Group, part of KVH Industries, Inc. (KVHI), Crewtoo, which says it has more than 100,000 members,  is premiering the service today in Stamford, Connecticut, at Shipping 2014, the annual shipping conference and exhibition of the Connecticut Maritime Association. The Crewtoo jobs board is integrated into the Crewtoo site and enables seafarers to simply change a setting on their profile to state that they are available for work; they are then prompted to fill in their full employment details on the site and upload their current CV/resumé.

The private ISWAN event on 21 November will take place in an appropriately maritime venue: The Ward Room of the HMS "President", a former Royal Navy warship docked in London and converted to a club and event space. George, the author of the acclaimed book, "Deep Sea and Foreign Going: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry that Brings You 90% of Everything," published in September 2013, is a lecturer and former ship master who received the MBE in 2000 for services to maritime safety. George spent five weeks on a containership while researching "Deep Sea and Foreign Going," which describes the challenging working conditions onboard commercial ships. Her book has received attention both inside and outside the shipping industry for raising awareness of seafarers' welfare.

Two fights occured on the ferry 'Pride of Rotterdam' on passage from Hull, UK to Rotterdam; one was over a slice of pizza. Two British passengers on a Dutch-bound ferry were airlifted to hospital in serious condition after two separate fights onboard, including one over a slice of pizza, according to Dutch police, as reported by 'Crewtoo'. The first incident happened around midnight when a 25-year-old Briton allegedly snatched a slice of pizza from another, sparking an argument which led to a scuffle in which the 25-year-old man fell down a flight of stairs…