Mr. B. N. Prasad is the Executive Director of Bernhard Schulte Ship-management; the second largest Ship Management Group; formerly known as Eurasia. Mr. Prasad, with a Doctors’ Gold Medal (Merit holder) in his academic laurel, joined Great Eastern Shipping in 1973 for his first sea assignment. Completing 20 years of sea-assignment, he switched to shore assignment and joined Eurasia (Hong Kong) in 1993. As the Executive Director, now he is looking after the all India operations.

Jobships.com had a brief chat with Mr. B.N. Prasad. The extracts are reproduced below for the readers:

Jobships.com : Eurasia has completed more than 25 years in service as a Ship Management Company. As the Executive Director what you feel? How is the journey so far?

Mr. Prasad : As a global solution provider, firstly I have to mention about our placement service. We are looking after the crews and officers placement. We are sourcing crews from India, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China and to some extent from Eastern Europe. Predominantly we are taking crews mostly from India. In the meantime, we have more than 75% Indian officers in our fleet.

From last 1st January, 2008 Eurasia has made an alignment with its other group companies. It’s not acquisition but integration. Now we are known as “Bernhard Schulte Ship-management”. We had 600 ships in our management last year, which increased to 650 this year, which makes us the second largest ship-management group. We are supplying crew to all these ships.

Jobships.com : “Eurasia” itself is a good brand name in the industry. What prompted you to change this name to “Bernhard Schulte”?

Mr. Prasad : It was our share-holders’ decision. The basic premise was to bring the five ship-management organizations, already owned by Schulte group under one roof of ‘Bernhard Schulte Ship-management’ as one integrated maritime service group.

Eurasia was the prominent-wing of Schulte group catering to the Asia region. Similarly, in Cyprus we had Hanseatic, Dorchester Atlantic Marine in Isle of Man, Atlantic marine in Bermuda and VBSK in Hamburg. So, all these companies decided to integrate in one group called “Bernhard Schulte Ship-management” to make it the best ship-management group for the responsible and demanding ship-owners and to meet the expectations of our clients. Meanwhile it will help us to carry larger mass which will give efficiency in terms of cost reduction to the ship-owners.

Moreover, it’s better to have one brand name, which will enhance clout and prestige of our group in industry as one of the bests. Employees also feel some kind of backing and support while working under a large group that it will not exercise any unethical practices and will look after the safety issues onboard.

Jobships.com : HR is a new term for the shipping industry. What steps are you taking to incorporate HR policy? What HR policies are you adopting to attract the seafarers?

Mr. Prasad : At the moment, industry is facing shortage of seafarers, so do we. Therefore, we are trying to have much better interface with our seafarers and their families. We started “Circle Eurasia” to take care of our seafarers and their family. Inviting families to come forward and discuss any problem if they are having, arranging get together of seafarers’ families in all the major cities in India are some activities operating by “Circle Eurasia”.

We also started a welfare team only to look after the welfare of our seafarers when they are on leave by sending greeting cards etc. This welfare-team is dedicated to the staff to look after these services like calling the seafarers while on leave or being in-touch with those seafarers who are onboard. I think, it’s a good welfare practice. Our wages and benefits are benchmarked against the best companies.

Jobships.com : Shortage or loss of quality crew and superintendent is a big issue presently affecting the industry’s performance. What is your view about this? What remedial measures are you taking to overcome it?

Mr. Prasad : In a country like India, where the wage-structure is good enough in comparison to other professions, we should not face shortage. It’s a lot of barriers we have put as hurdles in India, which can be a reason that people are not coming out to adopt shipping as their career path. There are many young boys who don’t have knowledge of shipping, sometimes they perceive a negative image about shipping like sea-life is dangerous, life is tough or they have to stay away from their families while onboard.

But shipping has positive aspects also. In this career, people have to work only for 8 months a year and enjoy 4 months of clean holidays without any kind of liabilities towards work. While, working in a shore job can’t give that much of facilities. Gone are the days when seafarers remain out of contact with their families. Now shipping industry is empowered with new technologies. Seafarers are being provided with every possible technology, whether its internet or mobile, to be in touch with their families. Even now seafarers of junior ranks are allowed to sail with their families onboard. Promotions are also very quick in ship and salary gets almost “doubled” with each promotion.

I did a study on “wages-comparison” between Sea service and IT sector (Shore). I found that within 8 years of sea-service a seafarer earns INR 14, 016,000 whereas a person working in bank or IT sector for the same amount of years earns INR 7,980,000. (Please click here to view the Comparison Table)

These are the positive aspects of sea-job that, people rarely come across. So, we have to promote the good aspects of shipping among common people by mass media, so that youngsters get inspired to embrace the sea-career. This will help the shipping industry to overcome shortage.

Jobships.com :The shipping industry is well-acquainted with the extension of seafarers’ fatigue onboard. According to you, what are the reasons behind fatigue? Are your seafarers facing fatigue issues too?

Mr. Prasad : Fatigue problems are due to two reasons. First is the number of officers onboard are less. Second is, the turn-around of ships on ports is faster. In earlier days the turn-around in ports was longer. A cargo ship stays in port for 5-6 days to load or discharge. But now, the duration of turn-around became less. So, that makes another reason for fatigue.

Usually, while sailing, seafarers have to perform 8 hours of duty. This usual routine can’t be a cause of fatigue. The fatigue issues are being faced only while the ships are calling into the ports, as seafarers have to be awake for long hours, to do hard work as well as to do lot of maintenance works.

Moreover, new requirements like ISM code, ISPS code and additions of new regulations for security paper-works, before or after arrival of a port, cargo manifests reports all are adding to the fatigue onboard.

The solution to overcome that is to strictly follow the rest-hour regulations compiled by IMO. Like Airline Industry, if these IMO regulations are enforced correctly in shipping, it will surely reduce fatigue.

Meanwhile, numbers of crews have to be increased. Ships should have a better stay in ports, like not leaving in mid-night or early morning. Better stay of ships at ports will offer seafarers some rests. Henceforth, reduce the amount of accidents, which is another outcome of fatigue.

Jobships.com : Seafarers are now specially concentrating on safety and quality while joining a ship. What measures are you taking on “Safety, quality and lost prevention” onboard?

Mr. Prasad : As first step to measure, we are communicating with our ship-staffs regularly. We make them aware about all the accidents which have taken place on our fleet and outside and discuss the causes as well as measures.

We also have a quarterly magazine delivered to all our ships, called “Our Feedback” on LPSQ (Lost, Prevention, Safety and Quality). Feedback is going to all our ships in every quarter. We are also having number of onboard training on safety issues by sending our auditors for a short duration. Our company is also observing a unique safety event, i.e. when our seafarers come to shore; we arrange some training programs developed on the basis of our own fleet experiences regarding safety issues. We place these programs through power-point presentation or through CBT in front of them.

Furthermore, I guess, for the first time in the shipping history, we arranged a safety seminar for the ratings. About 40 crews, invited from different cities attended the seminar. They were invited to the confidentially to discuss safety issues they are facing onboard.

Jobships.com : You believe in “being the best, not necessarily the biggest”. What policies are you using to adopt this principle?

Mr. Prasad : See, if you maintain a very good quality, you will have customers coming back to you. At this moment, as one of the bests, lots of people are approaching us for business purpose. But we have to be selective in such approach, as we have to look after our seafarers’ satisfaction. We have to be choosy in taking ships, so that it will meet the required standards to satisfy our crews and officers.

Moreover, to remain in the best position, we ensure three aspects as out- put of our training and maintenance policies. First is “cost-efficiency”, second is “operational-efficiency” and third one is “asset-reservation”. The combination of these three offers a good out-put from our staff and customer gains.

Jobships.com : You are employing both Indian officers and crews. What are the percentage of officers and crews in your ships?

Mr. Prasad : We have about 1900 Indian officers and crews for a single sailing. In the whole group, we have around 4000-6000 (I don't have the exact number) officers and ratings.

Jobships.com: Do you think Indian ratings are bit neglected than the officers?

Mr. Prasad : Yeah, to some extent. In earlier times, the Indian Union had put a kind of break in promoting the Indian ratings. They were not taking new guys, were maintaining some kind restrictions on getting CDC. The process, to some extent was corrupted also.  So, people who aspire to link with sea were not easily getting the pre-sea requirements. Government was also not helping to promote the ratings.

On other side, there is an acute shortage of the officers. Lot of foreign shipping companies are also coming and hiring Indian officers with admiration for their quality, the standard of education and the level of English awareness. Most importantly, if we look outside India, many shipping companies are today turned by the Indians in the top position. This, itself is a recognition for which Indian officers are more in demand.

Jobships.com : What is your personal opinion regarding the Indian crews as compare to the Filipinos?

Mr. Prasad : Actually, the rating training facilities in Philippines are very much widely spread. They are also very keen to go to the sea and complete the training. Whereas in India, hinterlands people are bit hesitant to come out far away from home to Chennai, Mumbai or Visakhapatnam  to complete their training.

Another reason is Indian crews are less adjustable with foreign officers. But, Filipino crews have been more versatile in adjustment to other cultures. So, officers of foreign nationalities find themselves happier while sailing with the Filipinos. On the other hand, Indian crews are still remaining secluded.

Jobships.com : You are also offering maritime training facilities. What kind of training you are offering?

Mr. Prasad : In India we have BSM CAL i.e. BSM Centre for Advanced Learning. In this CAL centre, we are targeting the non STCW courses and Leadership Development courses.  We also offer some courses that specific to our needs like largest ship simulator handling, container handling, cargo handling courses etc. These all are value added courses.

We also got approval from SHELL and DNV for our LNG training centre. That is also one big investment we have made and we are interacting with some reputed companies to conduct the LNG training. We are recruiting the Europeans and other people for training on LNG ships.

Jobships.com : How is jobships.com helping you in manning your ships? Is jobships.com helpful for seafarers as well as shipping companies?

Mr. Prasad : Yeah, it is helping us a lot. Our requirements keep increasing with each addition of new ship in our fleet. We have retention rate of about 70% of officers and about 30% we need to take from outside. So, to recruit this 30%, jobships.com is definitely giving us a good sourcing. We can contact the candidates available on Jobships.com database and as one of the best ship management companies; we can attract these candidates by giving good salaries and other facilities.

It’s a good advertisement portal. Seafarers and employers, both are interdependent. Both work together serving the shipping community and no one of these can exist alone. Jobships.com is working as a correlating medium between these two.

Jobships.com : What message would you like to convey to the budding seafarers through jobships.com?

Mr. Prasad : The only thought I would like to share is, shipping contributes to the economy of any country and to the world economy as well, which exists from ages. It is one of the very lucrative careers and I think it will be helpful for the world commodity, while qualified and good staff will come and join shipping.

Now, while we are passing through shortage, we are making lots of sacrifices in terms of quality and experience, which may lead shipping to a condition of catastrophe. So, now we have to wake-up and promote shipping in the right way, as a good career.

Jobships.com : Thank you.