A few ports are getting one step ahead and providing ways of communication such as free wi-fi
What are the marks of a progressive port? Obviously, one which is efficient, secure and safe, with good turning circles and competent pilots and expert tug skippers. We might consider one that has helpful and incorrupt port officials, who regard visiting ships as their “customers” and like any good shopkeeper, hope for repeat business.
We might also hope that our progressive port is pleasant to visiting seafarers, recognising that these are important people who deserve to be treated well during their brief stays alongside. We would hope that the arrangements for shore leave are not too onerous and that the welfare system is accessible. Seafarers should not dread an arrival at a port, as we fear that they do in some parts of the world.
Seafarers want to communicate with their homes and families and why not? We have come a long way from “snail mail” and letters coming and going with the agent or the pilot. Nowadays the seafarers’ centres which are hopefully to be found in port cater for telephone communication and e-mail, both with any luck available at a reasonable price. The ship visitors will generally carry telephone cards and very welcome they are, while if the seafarers are able to get to the centres, these days they will probably carry their own laptops, hoping for connections.
A few, really progressive ports are getting one step ahead and providing free wi-fi within the port limits, these being even more appreciated by those people who find themselves unable to get ashore or who might be at anchor out in the roadstead, waiting for a berth. This will really mark a port out as one which tries hard to make life tolerable for ships and their crews. There are just a few of these at present, with at least one of the world’s biggest ports – Singapore – and one of the smallest – Fowey (the china clay and coaster port in Cornwall) – at each end of the size spectrum. But we will hopefully find their examples being followed by others, with easy communication from ships being regarded as just one of the many facilities that are available in the best sort of port.
People who have not been to sea sometimes wonder at the extraordinary importance of communications for seafarers. The way the company treated crew mail marked out the very best shipping companies from the rest, and as the mode of communication has changed with technological advances, this importance has not become any less. The costs of communication are reducing quite dramatically, and the traditional isolation of the seafarer is similarly evaporating. Look at the results of any poll of seafarers about what they consider important, and the availability of internet and other forms of communication are high up on the list of priorities.
Communications at a reasonable cost, available in privacy and properly managed, make a huge difference. It is at least arguable that the company that makes such facilities available to its crew members will invariably have the best chance of retaining them, with this facility being so appreciated. We are moving into a new era when communications will be similarly available at sea and away from the land, but there is no doubt that ports that treat this matter seriously will be the ports people like to visit most.
Source: BIMCO, Watchkeeper