Transport Efficiency and the People On board

When the time margins decrease and the transport system is tuned for greater efficiency, new opportunities arise, but also new risks that need to be investigated and managed.

As part of the attempts to reduce the climate footprint of waterborne transport and the handling of goods in port, more and more attempts are being made around JIT calls. Tanker and bulk carriers often experience unplanned waiting time – when the vessel is at anchor outside the port, when maneuvering to and from the berth and while moored for loading and unloading (Poulsen & Sampson, 2020). There are several reasons why such delays occur, such as waiting for pilots, port opening hours, waiting for goods, traffic jams and weather conditions (Johnson & Styhre, 2015). The purpose of JIT is twofold. Firstly, the ships must be able to adjust their speed on the way to the destination and reduce fuel consumption. On the one hand, it should make the logistics chain faster and minimize the waiting time before the ship can load or unload, something that could also reduce emissions and environmental risks in coastal environments. Although many barriers to JIT have been identified (Dewan et al., 2018; Poulsen & Sampson, 2019), the concept has been adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO, 2018, 2020) and examples of implementations can be found both in the ports of Gävle and Finnish Rauma ( de Andres Gonzalez et al., 2021). The majority of existing research on JIT treats delays as "unproductive time in port" (Johnson & Styhre, 2015) where everyone has something to gain by minimizing waiting time. But is the time caused by delays at the port really unproductive for everyone?

The project highlights a major change in the industry and monitors the consequences of JIT for those working on board, an area where research to date is very limited. By engaging shipping companies with mixed experience of JIT, the project contributes to the exchange of experience as well as increased knowledge in the industry. The results from the project are shared in a way that is easily accessible and practically useful for shipping companies and their crews in the development of the ships' work environment work.

The project examines the consequences of streamlined logistics chains in shipping, especially just-in-time calls, on the crew's well-being and working conditions. The aim is to nuance the debate about just-in-time and to feed the conversation between shipowners, crews and their representatives. The goal is for the results from the project to be concrete enough to communicate to the industry in an information publication.