Garland Shipping Services: Building a Connected, Future-Ready Bulk Carrier Fleet with Navarino

Garland Shipping Services: Building a Connected, Future-Ready Bulk Carrier Fleet with Navarino

Garland Shipping Services LLC is a Dubai-based boutique shipowner operating a modern fleet of 15 bulk carriers trading worldwide. The company’s vessels transport a diverse range of cargoes, from industrial and dry bulk commodities to oversized project cargoes, including wind turbine components and other specialized equipment.

Beyond the safe and efficient transportation of cargo, Garland places strong emphasis on customer service, operational excellence, digital innovation, and crew welfare. As the company continues to modernize its fleet, management sought a hybrid connectivity setup that was capable of supporting both business-critical operations and the growing digital needs of seafarers.

The company required resilient, always-on connectivity capable of supporting business-critical applications, real-time ship-to-shore communications, remote monitoring, and data-driven decision making. Equally important was the need to strengthen cybersecurity, maintain regulatory compliance, improve operational visibility across the fleet, and provide seafarers with reliable internet access that would enhance life at sea and support crew retention.

A Hybrid Connectivity Approach
Working closely with Navarino, Garland deployed a comprehensive connectivity ecosystem across its entire fleet, combining Starlink Maritime with a 1 TB service plan, Eutelsat OneWeb’s 100 GB service, Peplink 5G coastal connectivity, Navarino‘s Infinity maritime IT platform, and the Cosmo, Navarino’s vessel monitoring platform. Together, these technologies provide a resilient, always-on communications environment with intelligent traffic management and automatic failover between Starlink, OneWeb and GSM networks, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity while optimizing performance and operating costs.

At the heart of the solution is Infinity, which enables secure network segregation between business and crew traffic, advanced bandwidth optimization, dedicated crew internet services, VoIP communications, firewall protection and integrated cybersecurity controls. As a type-approved cyber gateway, Infinity also supports Garland‘s compliance and security objectives, providing the robust digital foundation required to operate a modern, connected fleet safely and efficiently.

The high-capacity, always-on connectivity environment enables Garland to leverage a wide range of modern digital applications that enhance both operational efficiency and vessel performance. Real-time ERP and ship-to-shore systems, IoT monitoring and data collection, marine CCTV, video conferencing, remote diagnostics, technical support and continuous operational reporting all rely on the robust communications infrastructure deployed across the fleet. Today, Garland‘s vessels regularly consume close to 1 TB of Starlink data per month, reflecting the growing importance of digital operations onboard. OneWeb provides additional capacity and business continuity whenever Starlink coverage is unavailable, while GSM connectivity helps optimize communications costs when vessels are operating close to shore. Together, these technologies ensure that Garland‘s fleet remains connected, productive and operationally agile wherever it trades.

A key objective for Garland was improving the onboard experience for its seafarers. The deployment has significantly enhanced crew welfare by enabling reliable communication with family and friends, social media access, and video-on-demand streaming services. This has strengthened crew satisfaction while helping the company attract and retain high-quality seafarers in an increasingly competitive labour market.

A few words from the Garland CEO

Sachin Sebastian Abraham, CEO, Garland Shipping Services LLC said “As a modern shipowner, we wanted a communications setup that would support both our operational ambitions and our commitment to crew welfare. The combination of Starlink, OneWeb, GSM connectivity and Navarino‘s Infinity platform has delivered the performance, resilience and flexibility we were looking for. The solution enables our vessels to remain connected wherever they trade while supporting the digital tools that are becoming increasingly important to our business. We also looked through and chose the hybrid setup as we were installing CCTV cameras for 24×7 Monitoring of the vessels especially when carrying deck cargoes and are evaluating automated data capture to enhance our technical management”

Ioannis Brougiannakis, Navarino’s VP  Sales Middle East , added   “From our very first discussions with Garland, it was clear that Sachin and his team wanted to build one of the most connected and future-ready fleets in the dry bulk sector. Their vessels transport everything from traditional bulk commodities to complex project cargoes, creating a need for robust, high-capacity communications. Accordingly, we designed a hybrid approach and the result is a connected fleet that is well positioned to embrace the next generation of maritime digitalization.”