Human Element And New Technology In Maritime Transportation

The maritime transportation sector of Sri Lanka has grown and developed fast as the external trade sector has grown and developed rapidly over the past several decades. The external trade sector of the economy fuels the growth of the maritime activities such as, shipping and sea-transport, sea freight, and port operation. This has, in turn, created tremendous opportunities for investors and entrepreneurs keen in the sector. This research/thesis examines the relationship between the'human element'and the new technology in maritime transportation. The main objective of this study is to discuss the existing issues betwixt human element and new technology in maritime transportation sector.It is generally understood that the living and working conditions onboard ships is harsh and arduous in every sense for the sailors and hence new technology has been developed over the past number of years whose purpose is to mitigate and cushion some of those hardships for the sailors and to increase productivity onboard ships by avoidance of eventual hazards to them through satellite navigation and auto-piloting. But it is not very sure if they have contributed to mitigating the difficulties for the sailor and if so, to what extent the new technology has helped to assuage hardships. Then it is not very sure if the new technology based navigational systems have helped reduce the hardships at work imposed by situation and circumstance of sailing on sailors.Thus the first hypothesis is to test the plausibility that there is a close connection between new technology employed onboard ships and the working conditions of the sailors and their productivity onboard those ships. This hypothesis yields, in other words, that there is close symbiosis between yields human factors and technology factor. The second hypothesis to be tested yields that the technology employed onboard ships has helped to reduce tangibly the situations of hazards for the sailors and their levels of productivity onboard ships. The third hypothesis to be tested concerns investigation of the updating of the educators and administrators with new technology used onboard ships. Thus it concerns the inquiry of the postulation that goes as maritime education institutes and their teachers and instructors as well as the maritime administrators of Sri Lanka are well up-to-date with new technological know-how and technical instruments and other implements and systems available, and that the incentives offered to maritime education encourage the concerned people to bring up date their knowledge and skills by the state of Sri Lankan has been sufficient and adequate. The fourth hypothesis concerns the educational institutes, local government and policy-makers have been giving sufficient encouragement in achieving the highest level of training on new technology due to the minimum requirement stipulated by the IMO maritime training regulations.This study is organised in five chapters. Chapter One is the introductory part that focuses on the hypothesis, objectives, methodology and the organisation of the study. Then it attends the Literature Survey. Chapter Two discusses the theoretical background of human element and the new technology in maritime transportation sector. Then Chapter Three focuses on the research issue with relevance for the maritime issues that concerns Sri Lanka. The main findings of the analyses are Chapter Four. Finally, Chapter Five focuses on interpretation of the analyses and the concluding remarks. Then it also focuses on formulations for the policy makers and some general remarks.A careful survey of the existing literature has been carried out, thus, to establish reasons behind existing mode of relations between the so-called human element and the new technology used in connection with maritime transport. Then a questionnaire was distributed amongst 351 randomly selected active (those who are still in employment) sailors from various parts of the world and the data and information thus gathered were carefully tabulated. First, an in-depth search and examination of the available publications and other documents have been conducted. For this reason both official documents and other publications have been perused. The primary data and information have been gathered by way of structure and un-structured questions posed in the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of a sample survey carried out within group of randomly selected sailors. This was initially done to ensure that the questionnaire to be designed is in the line with the objectives of the research. The direct, focused group and telephone interviews were carried out with the maritime education institutes, maritime administrative officers, retired sailors, and ship owners. The secondary data was sourced from related internet sites, journals, online newspapers, periodicals, books and other academic publications. Graphical method and some statistical tools were used for the purpose of analysis. Particularly, Analytic Hierarchy Process, Fuzzy Comprehensive Judgment and CHAID Decision Tree Method were used to analyse the effectiveness of human element on new technology. On the basis of this assimilated information congregated by following the above steps, a number of conclusions and suggestions were prepared.New technology in the maritime industry has generally been welcomed as an essential feature and the way this technology has been utilised in most situations has been desirable. However the same technology has also introduced a measure of hazard and risk for the sailor and his ship. The introduction of new technology onboard ships has been brought by a number of factors. In some instances it has been driven by new regulations, as in the case of Automatic Identification System (AIS). In other instances it has been brought by tech savvy novices. High-tech gadgetry on the bridge can, in some instances, result in reduced safety in navigation. Some sailors are sensitive in this regard, perhaps because they do not feel confident in the face of advanced technology, perhaps they do not really understand how to use it and/or have not received any adequate training in it. Then there is a global shortage of experienced sailors. As at present the demand is most certainly greater than the supply, at present.