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Is your company looking for qualified crew members?

Candidates

Are you looking for a job in inland shipping?

Companies

Looking for Qualified crew to join your inland vessel?

Candidates

Looking for a job in inland shipping?

Inland shipping, in Europe more commonly known as binnenvaart, is where it all started for Flexbox Crewing. In just a couple of years, our decade-long industry experience and innovative software have positioned us as one of the main crewing agencies for inland shipping jobs.

PERMANENT CREW

Every day we post up to two hundred skippers and sailors on river barges across Europe. We hire our international inland shipping crew through our international manning branch in Limassol and our local service office in the Netherlands. Our recruiters are in direct contact with sailors, matrozen, and captains from various nations, including the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, and the Philippines.

Our top priority is that our people fit the position and ship on a professional and personal level. To find this sweet spot, we use our in-house developed software to map and match the hard skills, and our experienced recruiters who evaluate the personal aspect. We supply to all types of inland barges, like push barges, oil tankers, dry-cargo vessels and RoRo’s.

We have three options for permanent crew. Either we recruit the crew to be employed directly with the client. OR we post our people on our clients’ vessels, or we could take on the total crew management for a barge.

Outsource the recruitment of the talent your organization needs to us. We have developed a powerful job board – JobWave – where we will promote your company’s positions. You only pay us a success fee when you hire our proposed candidate. Afterward you can contract and pay the employee through your regular infrastructure.

We can post workers, which we have under a Flexbox contract, to work on your vessel. Posted workers will give your company the flexibility to quickly up and downscale your workforce. All while avoiding the risks and responsibilities which come with direct employment. Perfect for short-term to middle- long solutions. Flexbox also holds an AÜG license to post workers to German-owned vessels.

We offer Total Crew Management. We will recruit the needed crew and take care of the transportation/crew changes and complete salary administration. We will also make sure all positions are manned at all times, like during illness. Let Flexbox handle the crew so you can focus on your business.

In addition to these options, we provide payroll and contract services through our Dutch or Cypriot branches. Contact us to discuss your unique requirements. Navigating the complex labor laws in the European Inland shipping market can be challenging. Our goal is to find a customized solution for your business.

Jumpers or Aflossers

Every vessel has to deal with ad-hock demand for crew from time to time. Reasons for this could be illness, holidays, accidents, or simply a change of plans.Providing quick solutions in such cases is one of Flexbox’s main strengths. In inland shipping we call these temporary adhock employees Jumpers, Afloskapiteins or aflossers. We have built a database with more than 1000 Inland-shipping professionals from sailors to captains and rhine skippers. Some are full-time self-employed jumpers, and others like to work an extra week now and then.

Our in-house developed software will provide a list of suitable jumpers based on the ranking- and patent requirements, time frame, ship type, and required language skills. Our team will try and find an available jumper for your vessel within hours, and do whatever is needed to get the reliever to your vessel in the most economical way possible. Give us a call to discuss your needs.

Frequently Asked Questions about our inland shipping crew

We hire professionals across all ranks in the inland shipping industry, provided they possess a European inland shipping sailor book that verifies their rank. Additionally, we are dedicated to assisting individuals who are either beginning their careers in inland shipping or transitioning into this field. Our team offers comprehensive guidance on how to obtain a sailor book and advance through the ranks, starting from the position of deckhand and moving upwards. Of course some positions are a lot harder to provide than others, there is a general shortage of qualified skippers and we cannot magically change that. We can however in touch with a large chunk of the current work force and can optimise your chances of finding the right person for the job.

In the inland shipping industry, sailors from Indonesia and the Philippines are highly respected and demanded employees. A large advantage is that the Asian crew stays on the ship for much longer shifts in comparison to general European crew. This can highly reduce the travel costs and time needed to organise crew changes.

We also partner with an agency in Manila, Philippines, to hire and even train experienced seafarers as ‘matroos’ (deckhands) on inland vessels. This collaboration underscores our commitment to bringing skilled professionals from diverse backgrounds into the inland shipping sector.

We can provide Filipino crew of all deck ratings for a attractive all inclusive rate per month. Contact us for more information.

The availability and cost of hiring captains and skippers with ADN and Rhine licenses vary with market conditions, time constraints, and assignment specifics. Finding these specialized professionals at short notice can be challenging.

Our network offers skilled captains with daily rates between €300 and €700. In high-demand or urgent situations, rates for KVB captains may increase, but we prefer not to endorse this trend and often opt to decline such requests.

We aim for consistent, reasonable pricing throughout the year, though our rates and availability are inevitably influenced by market dynamics.