BC Ferries CEO says improvements to the system are required in a lot of areas to meet the growing demand of users who travel on the vessel not just for passengers but for the economic development of the province.
Jill Sharland spoke with media today to discuss how canceling sailings after the Coastal Celebration was taken out of service on July 19 due to an ineffective blade seal discovered by a dive team affecting several customers traveling between Vancouver and the island.
Sharland says investments totaling five billion dollars are being made to upgrade many aspects of the company to ensure a smooth user experience and to cut down on further delays.
“These are investments we need to make to address many of the issues in our terminal,” Sharland says. “This will replace our aging vessels, add new capacity to the system and address the technology systems.
“We hope this will improve how people check in at terminals and provide much better sailing status information.”
Canceling the Coastal Celebration led to several delays and backlogs and Sharland says she understands the struggles people are going through when it comes to service interruptions but to improve the system BC Ferries needs to look at the research to determine how they can improve.
“We need better data and methods to improve how we communicate for all our customers,” she says. “It is appropriate that everyone in the province has high expectations of us, and why we must improve and build confidence in the system.”
As part of improving service Sharland says the five-billion-dollar capital plan will help provide newer vessels from the current ones, but it will take time to complete this project.
“We have a program to replace our island class vessels and we plan on moving our business case forward in August,” she says. “We are also currently building design specs for the replacement of our sea class vessels.
“We have sea class vessels put in service in the 60s and within the next 12 months should be able to advance and put forward the investments needed to replace the aging vessels.”
With the long weekend approaching and the threat of increased delays looming over passengers Sharland says it will be difficult to predict if users will have to wait any length of time to board.
“It is difficult to predict what will happen,” she says. “We can predict people will make reservations, but what we can’t know is if they will show up to honor it.”
“What we also can’t predict is what drive-up traffic will be like, and how that may impact wait times.”
According to Sharland, the current reservation model on the major routes is to list 80 per cent of the vessel for reservations and those who choose to travel during peak times are gambling.
“We make very clear to those people who are traveling without a reservation there is a good chance on a long weekend, at peak times, there will be a sailing wait, but we can’t predict how long it will be,” she says.
BC Ferries says they are urging customers on long weekends who plan to sail between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to make reservations to ensure they get onboard.
She also acknowledges labor shortages are contributing to delays and cancelations at the terminals and Sharland says they have had to adjust to keep up with demand to keep the system running smoothly.
“We have moved away from a seasonal staffing category into a casual category. This means we can guarantee hours over the summer, so staff don’t have to wait on call,” she says.
She says dealing with the labor shortage, especially with the new Hullo ferry service is going to be difficult in today’s market, but they are making efforts to retain employees to improve customer service and the customer experience.
“We are making negotiations with the union to retain employees with higher wages and more competitive packages,” she says. “If people need to make individual choices in a market as tight as what we are experiencing then they should do that.”
According to BC Ferries, they have a high rate of performance when it comes to on-time sailings, and during high peak times, and long weekends, it can be challenging to move a high volume of customers.
Although BC Ferries is still trying to restore faith in customers after last week’s delays, they still maintain people should book ahead and be prepared for delays.
According to BC Ferry’s website, the busiest times to travel are Thursday afternoon, Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning.
