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Lockdown has given everyone plenty of time to think. Whether it’s the fact that you are working from home without constant interruptions and meetings or not having to spend hours on the daily commute, those extra few hours will hopefully have provided plenty of inspiration on how to make things better once the world gets back to normal. In addition to having more time to think, one of the best things to emerge from lockdown has been Splash TV and the recent episode on the future of chartering set a pretty high bar for future productions with a lively discussion with four industry leaders on how we are going to improve the efficiency of fixing ships. When you look at the amount spent on tech start-ups in shipping over the years, 1.25% suddenly doesn’t seem such bad value Chartering platforms which allow you to do away with the broker have been knocking about for over two decades but have never really seemed to catch on and each time a new one emerges, the brokers always seem to live to fight another day. Whilst getting rid of brokers was not the core theme of the Splash TV episode, the programme prompted discussions on how we can become more efficient as an industry. There are now so many data management tools available to distil and analyse the overwhelming volume of data we are expected to have factored into every decision. Whilst the world’s app developers might now be concentrating on building the ultimate contact tracing application, you can be sure that there will be plenty more eager start-ups which will emerge once their founders can get back out sourcing venture capital. Futurologist KD Adamson made the point that 70% of start ups fail and that there are plenty of shipping companies who have invested substantially in ventures which seemed to offer solutions to make chartering more efficient but which quickly floundered, usually because they ran out of money. It’s time to put to bed those ideas that shipbrokers are dinosaurs who have no place in the modern world. As one panellist on the show pointed out, “You will still need a human to make judgement calls”. That is surely going to remain the case no matter how accurate your complex algorithms and data analytics are. The whole process of chartering ships has become much more efficient over the past couple of decades. That efficiency has certainly come at the expense of some smaller broking and chartering operations who cannot offer the scale that is needed, but it has not in any way diminished the need for the human element. The need to share opinions, ideas and information, the need for creativity to deliver solutions which will make business more efficient, whether it be finding a suitable partner with whom to co-invest or find the backhaul cargo which turns a marginal trade into a lucrative service will remain. That means shipowners are still going to need creative chartering managers who in turn need to work with the best brokers whilst utilising all the new artificial intelligence tools which are available. When you look at the amount spent on tech start-ups in shipping over the years, 1.25% suddenly doesn’t seem such bad value. The problem for the future lies in ensuring that the industry balances the recruitment of the increasingly important AI professionals whilst continuing to attract the commercially creative minds who will generate the profitable deals. A certain mercurial Norwegian shipowner cut his teeth in the telex room of a shipbroker, learning his trade reading offers and counter offers and mastering the peculiar vernacular of shipping. Does the tech industry have the ability to deliver people who can not only provide AI solutions, but also have shipping in their blood?

Why that commission is worth it

Digitalisation is increasingly taking centre stage in commercial shipping, but as our special correspondent argues, the human element is needed more than ever - and it’s good value.

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