MarTrust: Why did you choose the MarTrust E-Wallet?
Richard Tiggelaar: Marcura was already known by Seatrade. Our office in Breda had worked with the DA-Desk for many years already.
They have a new part for ship management in the DA-Desk. We saw a presentation of the DA-Desk module from Marcura and they also presented the MarTrust solution.
MT: What did you do before you started using the MarTrust E-Wallet, and how is it different now?
RT: We created a payroll, and seafarers requested an allotment every month, sometimes the allotments and the bank accounts from the seafarers differ.
We were spending a lot of time creating the payments for wages every month. MarTrust reduced the workload a lot.
There was still some communication, but more communication between MarTrust and us, than us and the seafarer.
The seafarer can access his app and the E-Wallet as he wants to, so that is perfect.
MT: What do you like the most about the MarTrust E-Wallet?
RT: Actually, how quick it is to upload the payroll, schedule the payroll, and make any necessary approvals. You can also easily add users and super users.
MT: What are some of the benefits you hear directly from the seafarers?
RT: The feedback we receive is mainly positive because they can add bank
accounts, and they can transfer funds from their own MarTrust E-Wallet to an E-Wallet of a colleague. These are some of the benefits that we hear.
MT: What are the overall benefits for Seatrade?
RT: For the company, it is timesaving and for the seafarers, they are completely in control of their own funds and that is a huge benefit for them.
Seafarers can make remittances to any bank account they wish, pay with their MarTrust cards to make offline and online payments, and do ATM withdrawals, so for the seafarers, there are lots of benefits.
We mainly work with Russian, Ukrainian, and Filipino crew members, we are now rolling the MarTrust solution out fleet-wide for our Russian and Ukrainian crew members.
If that goes well, we are also looking to roll it out to the Filipino crew members.
MT: What are the overall benefits for
Seatrade?
RT: For the company, it is timesaving and
for the seafarers, they are completely in
control of their own funds and that is a
huge benefit for them.
Seafarers can make remittances to any
bank account they wish, pay with their
MarTrust cards to make offline and online
payments, and do ATM withdrawals, so for
the seafarers, there are lots of benefits.
We mainly work with Russian, Ukrainian,
and Filipino crew members, we are now
rolling the MarTrust solution out fleet-wide for our Russian and Ukrainian crew members.
If that goes well, we are also looking to roll
it out to the Filipino crew members.
MT: With MarTrust E-Wallet and card, cash
to master is digitalised. Can you share your
views?
RT: With the Cash to Master deliveries on
board, there are also huge bank charges and
for our company, these can be the value of
about $100,000 per year, only for the bank
charges to deliver cash on board.
If the cash can be reduced there, you will
have a lot of savings from bank charges
alone.
We have a lot of vessels sailing in West
Africa into West African ports, their safety
also becomes a big issue, it is important not
to have too much cash on board.
MT: How will a payment solution like
MarTrust help seafarers worldwide and your
company?
RT: I think it brings home closer to the
seafarer when he is out on the sea.
For example; if a wife of a seafarer needs
some money urgently, that can be done
within seconds and the money can be sent
to the account of or be on the card of the
partner of the seafarer almost instantly.
So for the seafarer, it brings home a little
closer to him.
The MarTrust solution for the company
allows us to have better cash flow control,
which is the main reason for doing this.
Cash flow saves time so as a company
you can do things that you are good at.
Remitting wages is not your core business
as a shipping company, so, therefore, you can
bring the business back where it belongs.
MT: Share your experience with MarTrust’s
onboarding process.
RT: The onboarding process went very
smoothly. We had to deliver many documents,
but that has to do with safety as you are
dealing with the wages of the seafarers. As
you have to give the required documents to a
third party, you want to have trust.
The onboarding process went very smoothly
for us.
Richard talks about how the E-Wallet has helped reduce cash-to-master transactions, boost cash flow, and streamline the payroll process. He also discusses why it helps seafarers and how they’re completely in control of their funds.
In the interview, Richard said, “MarTrust reduced the workload a lot.”
“For the company, it is timesaving and for the seafarers, they are completely in control of their own funds and that is a huge benefit for them.”
“I think it brings home a little closer to the seafarer when he is out on the sea. They can make remittances to any bank account they wish. Pay with their MarTrust card and remit from their MarTrust E-Wallet to another E-Wallet.
They can make online payments and make ATM withdrawals, so these are the most benefits to the Seafarers.”
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Hi there 👋
My name is Domenico Carlucci and I’m the CEO of MarTrust.
The team do lots of demos and initial conversations every year.
We’d love to give you a personal demo of the company dashboard (“company control centre”) to show you how easy it is to manage the crew salary process with our E-Wallet.
If you’d like an initial chat with a solutions specialist then please complete the form below.
If you’re not ready for that yet, please check out our home page for shipping companies.
Many thanks
Domenico
If you are a seafarer / member of crew / customer, please don’t use this form.
The quickest way for you to get your questions answered, or for customers to get help, is to email: [email protected]