LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE
The 21 unions in the Nautilus Federation have come together to give a voice
to seafarers in the debate over automated shipping. Andrew Linington,
Director of Communications at Nautilus, reports…
The potential for ‘smart’ ships to improve
working lives and safety in the maritime
industry could be wasted if the human
factor is ignored in the drive to introduce
new technologies, a new report from the Nautilus
Federation of unions has warned.
Drawing on a survey of almost 1,000 maritime
professionals from more than a dozen different
countries, the report argues that important
social and human issues have so far been
neglected by manufacturers and authorities as
the introduction of autonomous ships comes
closer.
The Nautilus Federation – which is composed
of 21 unions in 16 countries, together represent-ing
more than 90,000 maritime professionals
– conducted the research in an attempt to shift
attention to the impact of ‘the fourth industrial
revolution’ upon seafarers.
The report points out that some major
maritime nations and leading technology
equipment manufacturers are investing huge
amounts of time, energy and money into re-searching
and developing products and systems
to enable the deployment of autonomous or
remote-controlled vessels. The first fully autono-mous
ship is expected to be brought into com-mercial
service by 2020, and the Federation
argues that it is essential that the human
perspective on these developments is taken into
consideration before radical changes to shipping
operations take place.
Nautilus International general secretary Mark
Dickinson commented: ‘Properly introduced,
automation and digital technologies could
50 SUOMEN MERENKULKU J FINLANDS SJÖFART
transform shipping in a positive way – eliminat-ing
some dirty and dangerous tasks, cutting
paperwork and bureaucracy, and generating
significant productivity gains. Managed poorly,
however, it could undermine safety and danger-ously
erode the essential base of maritime skills,
knowledge and experience.’
Mr Dickinson said he hoped the survey would
‘help to shape a future in which new technologies
are used not simply as a crude substitute for
seafarers, but as a tool to improve the safety and
efficiency of the shipping industry and the
working lives of all within it’.
KEY FINDINGS IN THE SURVEY INCLUDE:
• 84% of maritime professionals see automation
as a threat to their jobs
• more than 85% consider that unmanned,
remotely-controlled ships present a threat to
safety at sea
• 83% consider that new technologies have the potential
to improve the quality of life at sea and more than 60%
believe they have the potential to improve safety
• 80% believe that radical changes in training and
certification are required as a result of the rapid
advances in shipping technology
• more than 60% believe seafaring unions should resist
automation
• fewer than 40% believe that commercially viable
unmanned ships will be in widespread service within the
next 20 years
• almost 90% believe that shipowners will only introduce
autonomous ships if they are cheaper than using
seafarers
Respondents said the introduction of autono-mous
shipping operations was most likely to be
made in deepsea services and least likely within
ports and pilotage areas.
Many questioned the economic viability of
autonomous ships – pointing out that crew costs
have been driven down to very low levels through
increased recruitment of seafarers from low-cost
labour supplying countries and through sus-tained
reductions in crewing levels. Other
obstacles to the adoption of autonomous ships
were felt to be cyber-security, the reliability of
communications, legal and liability issues,
software quality, risk assessment and public
acceptance, opposition from seafarers and their