PC Maritime announces strategies designed to help shipowners control their costs

With freight rates in the doldrums and many vessels laid up, shipowners worldwide are looking to reduce expenditure. However, with mandatory installation of ECDIS on board newbuildings being phased in from 2012 and existing ships from 2014, combined with a number of well publicised incidents where findings have shown crews to be in need of better ECDIS training, PC Maritime is receiving a steady flow of enquiries for its crew training programs.

Anne Edmonds, PC Maritime's marketing director says the company is exploring ways in which it can provide its customers with more convenient, cost-effective ways of carrying out the required ECDIS Type Training:

"One solution now under development is a CBT (Computer Based Training) program. We began this last year but because of the imminent changes that were due to come into effect on 1 January 2009, we decided to put the project on hold. Now though, with Type Approval having been secured for our latest version of Navmaster ECDIS, we are pressing on with finalising and releasing a CBT program that will be consistent with the latest standards.

"The program is designed to provide training in all operational aspects of Navmaster ECDIS and consists of demonstrations with voiceover, exercises and tests. It will be offered to customers for use onboard or ashore for initial and refresher training."

The same product will also be offered online. The PC Maritime Learning Management System (LMS) online service can deliver the same training content as the CBT, thus giving interviewees and off duty officers the opportunity to prepare for assessment or refresh their knowledge wherever they have access to the internet.

The important additional capability of the LMS is that PC Maritime can give access to individuals for an assessment test, manage and report on the results, issue certificates and email interested parties of users' activity and performance.

Ms Edmonds says:

"Taken together, our solution to the ECDIS type training requirement offers significant savings by reducing the need for face-to-face training with the associated costs for time and travel. In addition it offers more effective training by ensuring that all the detail is covered in a form suitable for initial and refresher training."

The college link

PC Maritime is also pointing out to its customers that they can save valuable training time (and therefore money) by sending their officers to maritime colleges that use its Navmaster ECDIS for Training system.

Ms Edmonds cites as an example:

"The ECDIS generic training course is usually five days, two of which are practical. If a shipping company sends its staff to a college equipped with Navmaster ECDIS for Training to carry out the practical elements of the course, then these seafarers are already part-trained in Navmaster."

Retro-fitting ECDIS

To ensure that they will have sufficient numbers of experienced, well-trained crew available as more and more of their vessels are fitted with ECDIS, owners are also choosing to retrofit the company's Navmaster ECDIS systems to existing vessels, says Ms Edmonds:

"Competence in the use of ECDIS really requires officers to be using it on a regular basis.

"Installing a single Navmaster ECDIS as an aid to navigation is quite inexpensive and provides an easy bridge towards the ultimate stage, dual ECDIS and the abandonment of paper charts. With a single system, crews can stay up to speed with ECDIS technology even though paper charts continue as the primary navigation tool."

To further reduce costs, PC Maritime has developed and continues to refine a system of remote diagnostics and support, providing faster response times and often eliminating the need for technicians to attend the ship.

PC Maritime's commitment to ECDIS training and education is further supported by an extensive library of relevant papers dealing with the use (and mis-use) of ECDIS: see http://www.pcmaritime.co.uk/comm

Note to editors

Two photographs to accompany this release are available on the Dunelm Public Relations website at http://www.dunelmpr.co.uk/Charente-Photogallery.htm. The captions read:

"To ensure that they will have sufficient numbers of experienced, well-trained crew available as more and more of their vessels are fitted with ECDIS, owners are also choosing to retrofit the company's Navmaster ECDIS systems to existing vessels such as this installation on a 153,000dwt Suezmax tanker."

"PC Maritime points out to its customers that they can save valuable training time (and therefore money) by sending their officers to maritime colleges that use its Navmaster ECDIS for Training system such as the Dutch college Willem Barentsz seen here."

For more information on PC Maritime and its range of products, visit www.pcmaritime.co.uk.

For further information, please contact Dunelm Public Relations:

David Cheslin Direct line: +44 20 7345 5233
E-mail: davidcheslin@dunelmpr.co.uk

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