Navios group IT director Katerina Raptaki urges regulators to consider the difficulties Greek shipping companies have in implementing new IT regulations, and asks suppliers to provide more ecdis support
Regulators need to consider the difficulties faced by Greek shipowners and managers in implementing new rules and legislative requirements as they battle to remain profitable in tough market conditions. Many shipowners are struggling to implement rules introduced by IMO and other regulatory bodies, said Navios group IT director Katerina Raptaki. “There is a gap between regulators and ship operators. Regulators want to regulate everything, but do not look at the implementation,” she told Marine Electronics & Communications.
“Regulators lay down deadlines but do not realise that shipping companies lack support and the IT experience needed to implement the requirements.” They also do not take into account the fact that shipping companies are operating with reduced budgets due to the current market conditions, she explained.
This is not a problem for Navios, which has an IT team of 10 people, including four dedicated to vessel operations on a fleet of around 150 ships. But it is for smaller companies. “Some shipping companies may have one person in IT to do everything – communications, software, telephony, bridge systems, engine monitoring, automation and ecdis,” Ms Raptaki said.
The key challenges for shipowners include running their businesses at rock-bottom market levels without compromising safety, environmental and regulatory compliance standards. According to Ms Raptaki, the IT challenges include providing managers with information to achieve extra cost savings and grow their business, implementing ecdis-based paperless navigation, rising prices for bandwidth, and ensuring high levels of crew welfare. “It is all about meeting the new requirements for safer and more efficient shipping and sharing information to increase efficiency,” she explained.
“The IT challenges in this new era include the fact that the e-navigation concept that has been in place for some time, is not taken seriously. For years we had a lack of bandwidth and speed of communications. Now this is being dealt with, but the shipping industry is not ready to take advantage of the extra bandwidth, and it is not yet available at attractive prices.”
On another IT challenge she commented: “We need to find ways to use the information that is available from engine and bridge systems. Shipping companies are not ready to use this information. We have extra bandwidth, but we just sell this to the crew – for purposes of cost savings and to have cheaper telecommunications. But we need to take advantage of the data for vessel monitoring, to make shipping companies more efficient, more profitable and safer.”
Ms Raptaki also criticised suppliers of bridge systems, such as ecdis, for not providing enough support. “Feedback from our crews is that they are facing problems with operating and updating ecdis. This is something suppliers need to look into,” she said. They also need to find methods of releasing chart updates in cyber-secure ways and keeping ecdis free from malware, viruses and hackers. “We have cyber threats that could be targeting shipping, so we are trying to safeguard ships,” she commented. “Ecdis suppliers want everything wide open for updates to come through – but there is no support.”
Navios is progressing with a strategy of introducing paperless navigation by deploying dual ecdis across the fleet. It operates bulk carriers, tankers and carriers for four separate owning companies. It has at least one ecdis on each ship, with paper charts for back-up on some and a second ecdis on others. “We are deploying paperless navigation on our ships – the tankers already have this.” Ms Raptaki explained there were serious challenges in implementing this strategy. “We are working on the bulkers, where there are ecdis systems on board from different manufacturers. When we add a second ecdis, it should be the same as the first one in order to have a dual redundant system.”
But in some cases this is not possible because of the age of the first unit. “We have to work with equipment, software and chart suppliers. We are dealing with them to get support for all the ecdis systems,” she said. Navios is also looking into what is required to ensure its fleet complies with the updated International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) standards that are scheduled to be enforced from August 2017.
Other ecdis-related issues that Navios is managing include crew training, electronic navigational chart (ENC) supply and cyber security. “Crew need type-specific certification for every type of ecdis they will operate across the fleet,” Ms Raptaki said. “Our Greek officers attend training centres in Greece. And we work with manning agents in the Philippines and Ukraine who use local training centres.” Navios uses the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office services for ENCs and updates. “This improves efficiency and the accuracy of ENC updates,” she said.
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