Page 36: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Q1 2015)

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career ship management

The ‘Philadelphia Express’ is a Marine Transport Management controlled vessel. MTM is a Crowley Company.

Andrew Rodden,

UK Regional Managing Director for

Bibby Ship Management

Industry Calls, Bibby Responds

UK-based Bibby Ship Management is seeing a near 20% increase in inquiries for its services from the offshore sector as ship owners and support vessel operators look to reduce costs and recruit the best crews for their vessels. But, those is now open to alternatives to man his ships while retaining two seemingly dissimilar goals can be hard to achieve in the their focus on quality.” same ? eet. Not so, says Bibby. Predictably, the trend towards The drive to improve cost ef? ciencies is not just limited to lower costs is being fueled by oil majors as the slump in oil the North Sea offshore sector, other high cost operators are prices weighs on their bottom line. being pressured to cut costs while maintaining operating ef-

Can managers improve service and crew quality while re- ? ciency. That’s easier said than done. But Rodden says that ducing costs? Andrew Rodden, Bibby Ship Management’s Bibby has the answer.

UK Managing Director says that they can, explaining, “There According to Bibby, the key bene? t is the operational econo- is a calculable commercial advantage to be made and there is mies of scale that managers can offer, especially where there a partnership between owner and manager which can bene? t are owners with small numbers of vessels within a geographical and improve the overall quality of the service delivered to the region. They will have a shortage of options in terms of what oil company,” he said. economies of scale they can draw on to help them drive costs

In the midst of the price downturn, support vessel owners down, they cannot really cut their crewing costs nor can they are still operating in high cost areas. Many are now looking drastically trim their travel expenditure or vessel procurement. to see if they can introduce cost savings without jeopardizing “Bibby Ship Management’s strength lies in its door to door, the level of service. Rodden adds, “They are looking at the end-to-end service which will add value to the supply chain.

OpEx of their vessels to see if they can save money from the Any ship owner can go to any company in the Philippines to crew employment perspective. We had one enquiry from an get a Filipino crew, but the reality is being able to offer the owner who traditionally employed high cost of? cers and who security of doing all of that in-house. We manage and control 36 Maritime Professional 1Q 2015I I