Logistics at a Crossroads: 🎙️ Volume 49 — Left at Anchor: The Other Side of Shipping

 


The Crew We Don’t See: When Shipping Leaves People Behind

When we talk about supply chain, we usually talk about land.

Terminals.
Yard density.
Chassis availability.
Dray capacity.
Blank sailings.
Rate pressure.

We talk about the parts we can measure.

But before a single container hits the berth…
before a crane even touches steel…
there are crews who have already been carrying the weight of global trade for months.

And when companies collapse?

They don’t get laid off.

They get stranded.

The Part of Shipping We Don’t Clock Out From

For most of us in logistics, the day eventually ends.

We close the laptop.
We drive home.
We decompress.

For seafarers, the job is the home.

The ship is where they work.
The ship is where they sleep.
The ship is where they wait.

And when wages stop being paid or operators abandon vessels, crews can remain onboard for months — without pay, without repatriation, sometimes without consistent food or fuel.

Not because of a storm.

Because of paperwork and bankruptcy.

Abandonment Isn’t Rare Anymore

According to the International Transport Workers' Federation, cases of seafarer abandonment have surged in recent years, especially post-pandemic as smaller operators struggle under debt pressure and shifting freight markets.

When a vessel is abandoned:

  • Crews are often unpaid for months.

  • Contracts expire but no relief crew arrives.

  • Ports won’t release them without legal clearance.

  • Owners disappear into shell companies.

From a logistics standpoint, this is more than tragic.

It’s systemic risk.

Because every time we talk about “capacity tightening” or “carrier instability,” there are human beings sitting inside that volatility.

The Invisible Risk in the Supply Chain

We love talking about resilience.

But resilience built on exhausted, unpaid crews isn’t resilience.

It’s fragility hiding behind throughput numbers.

From a planner’s perspective, here’s what matters:

  • Financially unstable carriers increase abandonment risk.

  • Flags of convenience complicate legal accountability.

  • Port authorities, unions, and insurers often end up navigating the fallout.

This isn’t about assigning blame.

It’s about acknowledging the human cost embedded in global trade models.

Why This Episode Exists

Most of my show talks about planners, dispatchers, warehouse teams — the ones we see every day.

But Episode 49 is different.

It’s about the team most of us never meet.

The people who don’t get to clock out.

The ones who can’t just “find another job” when a company fails.

The ones sitting offshore while emails bounce and phone numbers disconnect.

A Hard Question for the Industry

We track dwell time.

We track demurrage.

We track yard moves per hour.

Do we track whether the crew has been paid?

Because we should.

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