Internet: Today, good, reliable, high speed internet is necessary. If you don’t have it, you will find it difficult to hire good people under 40, and even harder to keep them.
Schedule: Rotations over 60 days are harder and harder to crew. In most cases there is no reason for it. Plane tickets are cheap enough.
Travel: Most of America pays full travel and full wages while traveling under the Portal to Portal Act. Mariners are exempt and being taken advantage of. They are sick of it.
Insurance: Only young, healthy guys, old guys on Medicare, and guys with wife’s insurance, can work for a company that does not provide good health insurance. $5000 deductibles are a fraud, and a time bomb, not insurance.
Food: Crews need good healthy food and plenty of it, including snacks and drinks. Most guys expect to eat as well on the boat as they do at home. The food budget must be generous, if any budget at all. This is the last place to economize. If a company is cheap on food, that’s a red flag.
401k: Companies must have a 401k. A match is not essential, but if there is a match, it should be good.
Holiday Pay: Everyone else in America gets it, and mariners deserve and expect it even more.
New Boats: The fleet of line haul tugs, really any tugs except tractors, is old, noisy, and uncomfortable. It’s time to build some new boats.
Profits: Even companies that are badly run with junk equipment are making very good money.