Shipping companies are paying out unnecessary high costs by continuing to pay seafarers with cash, says leading financial services provider ShipMoney, who is currently attending the ACI HR and Crew Management Summit in London.
EVP Greg O’Connell says that on an average fleet of 50 ships, shipping operators face spending nearly $500,000 in delivering cash to vessels. Annually more than $6billion in hard currency is delivered to the global merchant fleet.
With the cost of delivering cash to vessels ranging from 3% to 10% of the value being transported, shipping companies are losing significant amounts of money by paying crew via hard cash or wire transfers, ShipMoney says.
The company offers shipping operators an alternative method for paying their crews, through a pre-paid Visa card that eliminates the cash management challenges for both the seafarer and ship owner/manager.
Mr O’Connell stated, “These are really alarming figures. A lot of companies we are talking to don’t even realise the amounts they are paying just to pay seafarers in cash. In today’s world, where many ship operations are moving towards digitalisation, it really doesn’t need to be that way, as nearly everything a seafarer does when they get off a ship can be paid for with a card.’
