About this survey
 
While digital tools have been used on board ships for many years as a way to assist in the day-to-day ship operation, a rapid evolution of the digitalised environment has occurred in the past decade. This has brought increased automation, "smart" ships and the emergence of technology based on Artificial Intelligence. 


This project, co-funded by the European Commission and led jointly by the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) and the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF), has the objective of investigating how an ever more digitalised working environment on board ships impacts on occupational safety and wellbeing. By digital tools, we refer to the whole spectrum of tools, from operational aids to sophisticated decision-making tools, covering bridge and cargo operations and any other aspect of on-board life which is affected by digitalisation. We do not include fully autonomous ships within the scope of our research. 

We would be grateful for a few minutes of your time (between 10 and 20 mins) to fill in this questionnaire to help us identify and assess benefits and improvements, but also to highlight possible drawbacks and risks in relation to onboard safety and the wellbeing of seafarers. Based on our findings we will seek to draw up some recommendations for future action.
 
 
How to reply
 
When replying, please refer to your experience on your current ship of employment or the most recent one. A number of questions are in the form of statements, and we ask you to tell us if you agree or disagree using a scale from 1 to 5 (from strongly agree to strongly disagree). If you want to provide comments to any of your replies, feel free to use the dedicated, but optional, comment box. Data collected through this survey will be fully anonymised and used only for the purpose of this study.


Thank you for your kind support!
About yourself

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* Age

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* Gender

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* Nationality (leave blank if prefer not to answer)

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* Years of sea-going practice

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* Rank

About your ship

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* Ship type (current ship of employment or, if none, most recent one)

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* Age of ship (current ship of employment or, if none, most recent one)

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* Energy source used by ship (current ship of employment or, if none, most recent one)

Digital tools used onboard your ship

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* What digital tools do you use on board? (multiple answers are possible)

Your experience using digital tools onboard
Do you agree with the following statements?

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* Digital tools improve my personal safety on board when fulfilling my duties (e.g. reducing accidents).

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* Digital tools reduce administrative burden (e.g. filling in forms, keeping records, approvals).

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* Digital tools allow me to engage in more complex and high-level tasks (and less repetitive/mundane)

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* Digital tools have reduced the time I need to carry out tasks.

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* Digital tools allow me to have more rest time/time for personal use.

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* My experience with digital tools is that they are usually user-friendly and work as intended.

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* I trust in tools relying on digital technologies.

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* I feel qualified to operate digital tools.

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* My employer invests sufficiently in training to allow me to use digital tools used onboard.

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* I am concerned about new risks created by the digitalisation of work tools (cyberthreats, digital equipment malfunctions...).

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* I believe that digitalisation will lead to a reduction in ship crew size.

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* Increased digitalisation would move more tasks/responsibilities on-shore (e.g. remote operations, engine oversight, etc...)

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* Digital tools will fundamentally change the work of seafarers in the next 10 years

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* Overall, an increased use of digital tools on board ships is a positive development.

If you have any more time, we would welcome your thoughts on the following open-ended questions

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* What is the biggest benefit you see in the increased use of digital tools on board, focussing on aspects related to occupational safety and wellbeing?

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* What are the negative impacts (e.g. psychological wellbeing)?

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* How could the risks be alleviated in the future?

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* The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the use of digital tools to ensure the continued functioning of shipping (e.g. remote inspections). Have these had a positive/negative effect on safety and well-being on board?

 
100% of survey complete.

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