Odfjell's focus on digitalization takes another leap as the vessels test a debit card solution that will minimize the need to have cash on board.
At any given time, Odfjell vessels have a significant amount of cash on board. More than 90% of this amount is to supply cash to the crew.
Having cash on board poses risks for both the crew and the company, including threats of theft abound for crewmembers who carry cash ashore and on long distance travels. The vessels, and the company in turn become potential targets of fraud and bribery.
Apart from these risks, having cash on board also carries high financial costs. A notable amount of resources, on board and ashore, is required to process payment requests and to pick up the cash and hand carry it on board.
As a step towards safer and more efficient handling, Odfjell explores recent banking improvements and partners with Diabos and a financial provider to test an electronic card solution that makes handling of funds safer and more convenient. For a period of three to five months, the following four vessels will test the ‘Pay Mastercard’: Bow Star, Bow Summer, Bow Sea and Bow Chain. The experience from these vessels will be the basis in evaluating the available solutions.
The Diabos Pay Mastercard is essentially a debit card, which means that the cardholder can only spend the money they have on the card (as opposed to credit cards). During the test, salary advances for the crew, which used to be distributed in cash, will be credited to the card.
The card contains both Euro and US Dollar wallets, and can be used for online purchases, in shops and at ATMs worldwide that bear the Mastercard acceptance mark. It is chip- and PIN-protected, and can be instantly locked and unlocked via the Diabos website. With 24/7 access to the statement online, crewmembers will never have to worry about losing track of their spending.
Using the card either by spending or getting cash via ATM gives cardholders a better exchange rate than when changing USD cash to local currency. And since changing USD to local currency is no longer necessary, there is no need to worry about left-over local currency that incurs added cost when changed back to USD.
The Diabos Pay Mastercard has now been distributed to the crewmembers on board the pilot vessels for testing. Diabos CEO Imran Vohra and TicknPay CEO Julian Little visited the ships to assist the crew in setting up their individual accounts and to test the process with the Master. Trond Teigland (Senior Advisor Operational Procurement and Project Manager of Cash2Card), the team that worked to make this transition possible, and Agnes Enesio, VP - Head of Crewing and Rodney Perez, Crewing Officer from MPS Manila, took turns in visiting the vessels during the launch to attend to questions from the crew.
Like any other major change, the transition from cash to card has been met by both excitement and skepticism. Crewmembers are looking forward to the convenience and security offered by the use of debit cards, but are at the same time hesitant to give their full confidence to this new process that mostly relies on technology.
A big thank you is in order for the officers and crew of our pilot vessels who took the challenge to test this new process. It will be a crucial five months ahead as they explore the benefits of using a debit card and evaluate any potential drawbacks. The feedback and insights provided from all the testing crew will be highly valuable.
