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Enhancing seafarer experiences with technology

At CrewConnect Europe, we caught up with Torbjorn Eide, Vice President at Klaveness Ship Management, on innovations in crewing, the impact of technology on seafarers and their welfare.

June 7, 2018

2 Min Read
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Torvald Klaveness is one of the fastest innovators in the maritime industry, which puts the company’s seafarers in a unique situation where they get to experience new technologies quickly and guided by the developers themselves.

At CrewConnect Europe, we spoke to Torbjorn Eide, Vice President at Klaveness Ship Management, about how the innovative spirit of Klaveness translates to the ship management side of the business.

Innovation in training, recruitment, & development


“I think we’re lucky that Torvald Klaveness is a shipping company”, Eide told us. “We have an organisation where our people, especially in the top, have seen that digitalisation will be more and more important in how we drive our business.”

Klaveness’ vision ‘Improving the nature of shipping’ has inspired many in their company to innovate, which led to the development of the Klaveness Laboratory. The digital tools and technologies developed by the lab would end up on Klaveness’ vessels, where the seafarers can work with them and experience them.

“This year, we have a mission in Klaveness that will be relevant to the sailors”, Eide explained. “We have been digital on the outside, but it’s time to be digital on the inside by training the entire organisation in digital tools and how to use them.”

Related:Ben Bailey on The Seafarers Happiness Index

Adaptation to new technologies


“Sailors want to learn. Even our senior officers, being on board for many years, are also seeing that if they are trained properly and they used the tools properly, their working day becomes easier”, Eide shared. “Everything that we do is not to replace the people, but everything we do in technology and in the digital world is actually to make our sailors’ lives easier.”

He continued: “There is no doubt that a certain generation of sailors are technologically challenged, but at the end of the day when you communicate that the entire rationale for doing this is to make their every working day-life easier, they see that ‘Yes, this is to my benefit’.”


When it comes to wellness, strategies might not be the most important thing, but rather the strive for continuous improvement.

“Our retention rate is 97%, which it has been 93-97% since 2003”, Eide said. “And that tells me that we have been able, all along those years, to meet a continuous improvement on the wellness side for our sailors on board.”

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