How Rederi AB Väderö Tank's crew manager took crew travel into his own hands
When a voyage changes, John Hidalgo Casablanca rebooks his seafarers himself, from his desk or from the app, instead of waiting for a travel agency to come back to him.
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Rederi AB Väderö Tank × C Teleport at a glance
- Crew rotations a month
- 10–20
- Crew manager books and changes them all, with no travel agency in between
- 1
- For John to get used to the platform
- 10–15 min
| Company | Rederi AB Väderö Tank, a family-owned Swedish tanker owner, with Linnea Shipping in Norway as its crew hiring company |
| Speaker | John Hidalgo Casablanca, Crew Manager |
| Crew rotations | 10 to 20 a month |
| Before | Travel agencies by email, plus manual searches on public travel sites |
| Uses | Marine fares, the mobile app, 24/7 support |
What changed, in John's words
- Faster bookings: what took "like hours" now takes "like minutes"
- His top three: time saving, fewer errors, better cost control
- Changes any hour: voyage changes and cancellations handled from his desk or the app
- Word of mouth: he now recommends C Teleport to other shipping companies
Company overview
Rederi AB Väderö Tank is a family-owned Swedish shipowner running oil and chemical tankers, based in Grebbestad on the Swedish west coast. Its daughter company, Linnea Shipping in Norway, is where it hires its seafarers.
John Hidalgo Casablanca is the crew manager. He recruits the crew, coordinates their travel and makes sure everyone gets on and off the vessel safely. He handles between 10 and 20 crew rotations a month, sometimes fewer, sometimes more.
The challenge
When a voyage changed, the booking had to wait for the agency
Before C Teleport, every crew booking went through travel agencies. In shipping, plans don't hold for long: a vessel changes its voyage, and the crew's flights have to change with it.
We need a quick response, because sometimes our vessels changes their voyage. So, I needed to be quick on the job, so to speak, but it took some time with the travel agency.
Last-minute changes meant work outside office hours
Every change meant rerouting the crew to a new area, and much of it happened after hours.
You plan for something that you think will hold, but at the end of the day, with this last minute changes, it doesn't hold, and then you get stressful, and that means a lot more workload outside of work, office hours.
Public travel sites didn't fit seafarers
Searching flights himself on public travel sites didn't solve it. Those sites don't sell marine fares, and John's crew travel with a lot of baggage, often to postings of four to six months. With public fares, the baggage made tickets more expensive and the bookings more complicated.
- Slow bookings: waiting for the agency to find new options
- Work after hours: stress and extra work outside office hours
- Manual work: email back and forth, plus searches on public sites that couldn't book marine fares
The solution
A way to book marine fares themselves
The idea came from John's team: there had to be a way to find marine fares themselves instead of relying on the travel agency. They searched online and found C Teleport.
| The job | With a travel agency | With C Teleport |
|---|---|---|
| Book a crew flight | Ask, wait for options, confirm | Search by date and route, see the results, book |
| A voyage changes | Wait while the agency finds new bookings | Cancel and book a new flight in the app, any hour |
| Fares | Marine fares only through the agency | Marine fares in the search, booked by the team |
Simple enough to learn in minutes
You just put in the date from where to where, you know, nothing more. Then you get the results.
John got used to the platform in about 10 to 15 minutes, and described the onboarding and training as "smooth and very quick to learn".
Rebooking from the dinner table
John's job doesn't stop at the end of the day, and he can't carry a laptop everywhere. The mobile app lets him act the moment the plan changes.
I can be sitting in a dinner and I get a notification that the vessel will be delayed … Then I can just go into the app. I can cancel the current flight and book a new flight. And then when I get home, I can arrange all the paperwork.
Support when he needs it, from a person
When John needs help, he types "help" in the chat and asks to speak to an operator. He prefers a conversation with a person, and that's what he gets, in the middle of the night or when he's stuck in the car.
I just type help and I get immediately help. So yeah, I really like that.
The results
What changed for John and his team
- Booking time: "…when the travel agency took like hours. Now it takes like minutes."
- Less stress for the team: asked whether C Teleport relieved the team's stress, John said: "Yes, by a hundred percent."
- Time, errors and cost: his top three improvements are "Time saving, less errors and better cost controls."
- A clearer view of costs: "Better budgeting and a clear financial insight than before. You know what the flight costs. There's no hidden fees."
Above all, John has control over his crew's travel: he sees every booking live and changes it himself.
I like to have control over the situation, especially when I'm taking care of my seafarers, either from their own place to the vessel or back home again.
His advice to other shipping companies
John now tells other shipping companies about C Teleport, and some of them have started using it.
Don't hesitate … You can't lose on it.
I can't work without it, because going back to how it was, now, never again.
About C Teleport
C Teleport is the crew travel platform for maritime, aviation and energy teams. Your team books and changes flights for your crew itself, any hour, with marine fares. Crew details can come straight from your crew system, and our team is there 24/7 for bookings and disruptions.
See C Teleport on your own route
Tell us which routes your crew flies most. In the demo, we run a live search on one of them with you.
Samantha Uribe