Crew Changes & COVID-19: GAC Hub Services

Measures introduced to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have brought widespread disruption to normal crew change operations, with many seafarers prevented from disembarking or joining their vessels.

What challenges and restrictions do shipowners/operators face when arranging crew changes, and how have your local contacts helped to ease the situation?

GAC Hub Services acts as a global link between our ship owners/operators and performing agents, on almost all continents. Below are our observations while coordinating crew changes over the past months:

Local authorities in many countries worldwide have imposed restrictions which do not allow crew of other nationalities to sign on/off. Only country nationals were allowed.

Medical repatriation is subject to final approval from local port authorities, despite crew being fit to travel.

In some locations, crew changes are only allowed at anchorage or Off Port Limits (OPL).

In many locations, the agent must declare the vessel’s arrival to the port authorities 72 hours’ in advance to allot the anchoring area within port limits.

Additional layers in formalities including the requirement for agents to first collect and submit crew details, health declarations from port of joining, info of last port calls etc. to the authorities for review and approval.

As the extended measures and advisories are changing and, in some cases, becoming increasingly strict, GAC has and continues to provide constant updates. It should be borne in mind, however, that the conditions are fluid in many places and could change from one day to the next.

For all locations, crew joiners should have a health certificate along with COVID-19 test results, which should be provided to the port three days in advance of arrival. In some locations, crew may only disembark from their vessel with a negative COVID-19 test result. The vessel must stay at anchorage until test results are available for crew’s repatriation, and off-signers are not allowed to stay in hotels.

In some locations, COVID-19 tests are conducted upon arrival and the crew temporarily quarantined. Crew may only proceed with sign-on if the test result is negative. Otherwise, they must be isolated in designated COVID-19 hospitals.

Off-signers must follow an even more complicated procedure. Agents must arrange their quarantine stay in designated hotels or government quarantine centres until COVID-19 test results are received. Travel is approved after submission of a negative test result.

GAC offices and network agents around the world have followed the rules and regulations to successfully and smoothly conduct crew changes wherever possible. Our Principals highly appreciate our efforts when we were able to come up with solutions and identify suitable ports for the crew changes to take place.

How many crew change operations have you successfully executed since COVID-19 lockdowns started?

We have attended 125 port call jobs where crew changes were involved.

Are there any specific crew change examples you wish to highlight?

Most of the crew changes were successfully carried out at Cochin OPL in India, Hong Kong and Colombo, Sri Lanka.

We have also had successful crew changes elsewhere, such as the case where the GAC UK team attended a medical emergency at Immingham to transfer the deceased crew member to his home country during lockdown. Despite the extensive legal formalities involved, the transfer was conducted very smoothly. The client sent the following message of appreciation: “Thank you for your immense support and help. This would not have been possible without you. The situation was unfortunate and current lockdown and weekend made it appear difficult for things to move, but your efforts have been commendable right from the beginning.”.

There is great uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic; how long it will last, and what its impact will be. How are you managing this from a crew change and lay-ups perspective? What are your expectations for the coming months?

The outlook for the coming months looks positive, as many countries have started permitting arrangements for crew changes, including Reunion, South Korea, Bangladesh, Turkey, Egypt, Hong Kong, USA, China and UAE.

Is there anything else you wish to add?

The last quarter was very challenging for our agents and boarding representatives actively assisting the vessels we have attended. They have had to interact with groups of people to ensure undisrupted services to vessels and assistance to crew, hence their health and safety was a priority for themselves, their families and our customers.

Seafarers are the heroes of the COVID-19 era, but our agents should be recognised too, and we would like to thank them for their efforts.

For the latest updates about COVID-19 status/measures and the impact on shipping, including crew changes, in countries around the world, go to www.gac.com/coronavirus.