| Paying crew members in cash will lead to further challenges of increased incidents of piracy and theft, says global financial payments company ShipMoney. ShipMoney President Stuart Ostrow will address delegates at Crew Connect Global, taking place between 6th to 8th November, explaining the challenges ship managers face by continuing to pay their seafarers with cash. The company believes that shipping businesses are leaving themselves open to increased incidents of piracy and theft by not looking at alternative payment methods and fully embracing the new digital age. Given that the rate of delivering cash to ships ranges from 3% to 10%, reducing the amount of money that is onboard a vessel could also result in ship managers and owners reducing their annual spend by a significant 50%. There are currently around 69,000 ships in the world’s merchant fleet with almost ZAR 96billion in hard cash onboard at any one time. By continuing to pay seafarers in the historical method of hard cash, crew members are also forced to face extra charges when wring money home and withdrawing money in different currencies, Mr Ostrow will explain to delegates. ShipMoney will be exhibiting at booth number six at the Crew Connect Global Conference, which is taking place in Manila, the Philippines. |