Are Your Seafarers Happy Onboard Your Ships? Let Us Know What You Think

Our friends at Crewtoo.com just published the 2nd quarter results of a really interesting survey they are running continually with results published on a quarterly basis. The survey is called the "Crewtoo™ Seafarers Happiness Index" and asks respondents to rate their happiness on a scale of 1 to 10 with respect to 10 aspects of their daily lives aboard ship. Current overall index is at 6.44 which is up slightly from 1st quarter results. The report analyzes responses in detail for each of the 10. Some of the comments were quite interesting: (We'd love to have some comments from our readers.)

Connectivity (Able to connect with family and friends when at sea)

“The major gripes from seafarers on this subject related to either not having any access to the Internet or calls, or where there was the capability then some owners made it expensive for them to use the services available.”

“There were repeated calls from a number of respondents who wanted to see pressure to make Internet access for seafarers compulsory on all ships. If and only, they said, all vessels were connected to the web, that would make seafarers even happier.”

Getting ashore

“Some respondents asked what shore leave actually is – having not had a chance to take any for a number of years.” (There was a comment here about the US being the hardest country to get shore leave.)

Getting cash (Wages & Salaries)

“There was very little middle ground in responses to this issue – respondents felt well paid, underpaid, or never paid.”

Crewtoo is the world’s largest online network of the seafaring community, with more than 110,000 members. Crewtoo was launched in 2011 by KVH Media Group.