72% of Seafarers Have No Time to Learn New Systems. Training Is Not the Problem. Time Is.

Anyone who has joined a ship in the last five years knows the feeling. A new e-logbook, a new reporting tool and a new performance system, all in the same year. A PDF manual. And a full working day that has not changed at all.

The numbers. A study by the World Maritime University, paid for by the Lloyd's Register Foundation, asked 532 seafarers in 64 countries. 72% said they do not have enough time on board to learn new digital systems. More than 80% get digital skills training rarely or never. Only 13% said training ashore matches the equipment they find at sea. And two out of three want to improve their digital skills. So this is not a crew that refuses to change. It is a crew with no time.

What the software makers said. SplashTech asked people who sell shipping software. Several said the problem is the software, not the crew. "If a tool needs a training course, the tool is the problem," said Adam Dennett of SpecTec. KeelX's Aristos Philis said software should adapt to the crew. NAPA's Mikko Kuosa said the industry buys technology one department at a time, so the crew ends up with five systems and five logins.

Our view, from the ship side. We do not agree that good software needs no training. Simple apps do not. A planned maintenance system, a stability program or an engine monitoring system does, and should. Even a spreadsheet needs training to be used well. Training is a normal cost of any serious system. The real problem is that nobody plans the time for it. The system is bought ashore, installed in port, and the crew learns it between watches. And when it does not work, the crew works around it. One former seafarer, Hrvoje Mihovilović, put it well: "Installation is presented as adoption, cooperation as acceptance."

Be careful with the "no training" message. Every person quoted sells software, and "our tool needs no training" is a sales line. We build software for ships ourselves, so this applies to us too.

What to do. Before you sign for any new system, write down three numbers: how many crew hours the training takes, who on board gets that time, and when. Train on the real ship's equipment, not on slides. Ask the supplier which old task or report this system removes. And after three months, ask the crew, not the supplier, whether it saves time. [Splash247 · AiatSea, 18 October]

This story is part of the Maritime AI Digest of 1 November 2026.