To send a crew less ship over the ocean is the easy part. That can be done since 30 years,,
and today no problem whatsoever.
The problem starts somewhere else and that is the cost factor.
We had this in the 70-80,s...companies like Hapag reduced the crews to a bare minimum
and all service/repairs were done in ports,,until they found out that a crew on the ship
is much cheaper then service engineers etc etc
open questions among others
1)What crews costing who have to bring the ships into port
2)helicopters to be used to bring pilots and crews on ?
One will need helicopter fleets in port like Rotterdam
what that maintenance and pilots/service engs for same cost compare to crews
3)break down at sea,,who gets the ship going again
keep always engineers stand by to fly them in ?
4)maintenance overall, service engineers costing 1000,s
of dollars per visit.
5)what happens in case of collisons/groundings etc,, who is responsible
6)Crews aboard, like ABs getting 1000-1500 dollars per month
what peoples think crews in US/EU will cost per day to bring the ships in ? !
Are they paid per job, or per month , then they are rather expensive.
7)Example take Rotterdam, how much crews they need to have stand by
just to bring all the ships in and out per day
and all fully insured as per EU and not as per 3rd world and of course
taxed same
and on and on
technical doing ..that I can do today with my 12 year old bulker,, route-course setting,, automatic refill of consumption tanks and bingo the ship is in 10 days over the Atlantic
But then the real cost starting in the dept port and the arrival port
I think it is a whish thinking and very short thinking at that, all what companies will see,,no crew costs,, that the very same costs double and triple comes later.
Crew costs are often said is the one thing which is too high,,what about tugs which cost 2000 $ per job or more,,or layberth 10000 plus per day,, piloting cost of 3-6000 $ per job etc etc
the crew costs are today the least costs,,the only thing,,they can be relative easy be cut,,where the tug /pilot/berth/fuel etc is a must
Other cutting cost examples
1)prohibit ports to make regulations that ships even with bow and stern thruster have to use tugs
2) When ships making ex voyages to a port,,does the capt still need pilots
I personally sailed into Tampa over a period of over 10years every month
total of at least 240-260 times,,in/out and I never would get exemption because
I am not American,,in a lot countries the very same
3) linehandling in ports,, how about small boat and crew goes ashore and
does that too ?
Of course it is all mute to discuss,,but it is not just the expensive crews,,which actually nowadays are the lowest cost factors involved
Topic: Crewless ships, whatever next? (Read 2119 times)