Columbia Shipmanagement: Shipping’s transition must remain human-centered

As shipowners continue to navigate uncertainty over future fuel choices, digitalization is already providing opportunities to improve efficiency and support decarbonization. Yet, according to Sankar, the growing number of digital solutions available across shipping also creates challenges, particularly when systems are fragmented and lack common standards.

Bringing crews into the digital transition

For Sankar, one of the most important considerations when introducing new technology onboard is involving the people who will ultimately use it.

Rather than selecting and installing digital tools solely from shore, shipowners and managers should seek feedback from crews, test solutions in practice and assess whether they genuinely improve both vessel operations and life onboard.

When we install a new digital product, we need to ask the ship where those products are going to be installed: What do the people think about it? We need to run a pilot, get their opinion and see if that benefits decarbonization and makes their life easier.

If a solution delivers those benefits, he explained, operators can then make a more informed decision about whether it should form part of their wider strategy.

This approach also helps build crew acceptance of technological change. For Sankar, successful digitalization is therefore not simply about identifying what a system can technically deliver, but also whether the people onboard can use it effectively and see value in it.

Standardization remains a key challenge

The lack of standardization across maritime digital solutions is another obstacle that needs to be addressed, particularly as fleets adopt an increasing number of systems from different providers.

Sankar noted that having different products installed across vessels within the same fleet can create difficulties with data exchange and integration.

If you have a fleet and you have different products on different ships within the same fleet, then the data doesn’t flow well. There are hitches and glitches in between for the data to flow.

Alongside greater standardization, he stressed that training and adaptability remain fundamental. Technology may be promoted on the basis of energy savings, efficiency or improved vessel operations, but every system ultimately depends on the people using it.

Behind every software, every product, there is a person sitting behind. So again, it’s training, it’s adaptability to that program.

For this reason, he argued that people need to remain at the centre when assessing whether a particular technology is appropriate for a vessel and its operations.

Shipping needs to communicate its value

Beyond decarbonization and digitalization, Sankar also highlighted the need for shipping to communicate its contribution to global trade more effectively.

While the industry’s importance becomes particularly visible when supply chains and trade routes are disrupted, he believes shipping still receives comparatively limited recognition outside the maritime community.

“Shipping is so important. We learned this during corona, when ships were stopped and the trade routes were not as smooth as possible.”

Greater public awareness should also extend to the people working at sea. Sankar stressed that seafarers spend long periods away from their families to keep vessels operating and goods moving between ports.

“There should be more awareness about seafarers and what they sacrifice to be out at sea to make sure that a ship moves from one port to the other.”

Supporting seafarers and providing them with a good quality of life carries a cost, he added, but this should be understood as part of what is required to sustain global shipping.

Sankar stressed that, as shipping advances with digitalization and decarbonization, greater attention should be paid to the people expected to implement these changes onboard.

At the same time, he called for stronger public awareness of shipping’s role in global trade and of the contribution made by seafarers.