Driving the push towards a world economic recovery once the Covid-19 pandemic has eased will fall to global supply chains and the world’s shipping fleet according to Palau International Ship Registry (PISR).

With increasing pressures on the world’s shipping industry as international lockdowns bite, PISR is working as normal to help ship owners with its range of services digitally available regardless of time or location and continues to guarantee same day delivery for all services.

The registry’s services are all digital which protects the staff, Deputy Registrars and all stakeholders. These services have been working successfully and reliably for the past couple of years and PISR will be continuing to operate round the clock to ensure the Palau registered ships are still operating and keeping both staff and stakeholders safe during the pandemic.

Panos Kirnidis, CEO of Palau International Ship Registry, says it is vital that the world’s shipping fleet continues to operate as normally as possible.

“COVID-19 has already had a profound effect on the global maritime industry and the situation is changing daily. PISR has three words we are using during this pandemic to ensure our operations and those working with us, along with the ship owners we work for, are first and foremost: Care, Support and Contactless. We are available online, on the phone, by email, social media and through our website for any requests for help and support from our fleet.

With this pandemic likely to continue for some time, at PISR we have not changed our way of working but we have changed our place of operations. By having a digital operation and our services online we can guarantee same day delivery to both offices and ships of certificates and the rest of our services, most within a matter of seconds. This is what the world’s shipping fleet needs because they will be the driving force behind a global economic recovery.

“Our investment in becoming a SMART registry and having our services digital means we can keep our staff safe with remote working and still maintain the high standards we have set for ship owners over the past two years. We are offering a time and cost saving service that is reducing the administrative burden on ship owners. In fact, ship owners can even register their vessels with us using a smartphone. Whatever the enquiry we are still conducting business as usual: we can meet the needs of our fleet for certificates, registrations as well as online payments. All this is part of our determination to ensure business as usual and keep everyone safe in the process. Although we cannot be certain at this time about how the situations regarding inspections and port services are going to affected globally, what we can be certain of is that we stand firmly behind our ship owners.

“Ship owners can connect with any of our employees instantly by using our Customer Care Line even though we are all working remotely during this period. By using our website online chat function we can help with enquiries and connect callers directly with relevant staff members for specific issues. Information on fees, service requirements, applications, documents and processes can be accessed via our online Fee Calculator and online Service Requirements link. In order to avoid visits to the bank and make the life easier and safer at this time we have on our website an Online Payment tool for payments of invoices online even if the service/s were not ordered online.

“It is important to say again that at PISR we care deeply about our customers and we will support our ship owners to run their businesses through these difficult times. This pandemic is also causing issues for crew and their abilities to leave and join their ships and we stand behind them in trying to resolve these problems. They are as important to us at PISR as anyone else connected with our operations.

“It is not alarmist to say that the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to cause a severe shock to the global economy and in particular to the global shipping industry with the delays caused by the lockdowns in certain countries and production shutdowns, particularly in China, having a knock-on effect on the sector because of the disruption to global supply chains. We are working with ship owners to ensure the effects of these disruptions are kept to a minimum and not impacting on their operational abilities with digital services 24/7. Although there will most likely be a period of uncertainty even when the pandemic is past its worst, at PISR we have faith in the global economy and its powers of recovery. What we need is faith in systems, belief in strong governmental actions and a determination not to lose sight of the recovery that will come.”