Page 37: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Q3 2014)

REGULATORY WATCH nities, living conditions], but far more rarely than in the past.? That?s good news. All violations of the MLC Code are reported to the  ag state. Serious issues could result in a vessel?s detention. According to LR, any and all de ciencies must be corrected within 3 months. As the process matures, it is getting smoother and Brindle says that the Code is beginning to have its desired impact, saying, ?De ciencies are reducing over time. For example, a company operating 40 ships might undergo the  rst 10 vessel inspec- tions with varying degrees of success and typically, the next 30 will go smoother because they know what inspectors are looking for.? In other words, practice makes perfect. Like safety, real commitment to the tenets of MLC has to start at the top, where the decision to invest time, energy ? and yes, sometimes money ? has to be made. And, crew welfare involves far more than just a clean ship and a fair day?s wage. Shipowners who buy into that concept are already well ahead of the curve. Crew Comms: Key Morale Builders The new normal for merchant seamen includes access to an adequate array of communication options while employed on board. Shipowners who do not provide such amenities are now  nding it tough to keep mariners on board. Looking to leverage that growing demand from the marine sector, KVH Industries provides, in addition to myriad other products, in- motion satellite TV and communications systems for vessels. Recent KVH acquisitions of Videotel (July 2014) and Head- land Media (May 2012) have now been rolled into KVH Me- dia Group and allow KVH to bring more eLearning and better tracking of each crewmembers certi cates to shipowners. The company?s global reach now reaches as many as 25,000 vessels, with services varying from training and eLearning services (about 11,000 vessels) to movies and newspapers de- liver by DVD, email, etc., (about 10,000 vessels) and the KVH miniVSAT service (about 4,000 vessels). Tens of thousands of mariners are receiving the bene t of robust connectivity, quality entertainment and the advantage of on board learning that potentially reduces the amount of time which has to be spent training during vacation periods. For shipowners, New SOLAS Regulations and STCW benchmarks are becoming harder to comply with and still harder to track. KVH helps to track all of it, in a turnkey package, allowing an operator to con dently outsource the task, if desired. All of that is great news for the crew, but it also costs money. On the other hand, KVH provides low cost content delivery ? large amounts of data delivered just once to all customers www.maritimeprofessional.com | Maritime Professional | 3734-49 Q3 MP2014.indd 3734-49 Q3 MP2014.indd 378/13/2014 3:07:44 PM8/13/2014 3:07:44 PM