Mezeron & Steam Packet Master Thread

[gazza]

The "Outside Tescos" Flyer

 

 

Right whos going to make a flyer about the SPCO to try and tarnish them.

 

you make it i will hand them out.

 

bah they bring a child to do it there work to get the old heart strings going.

im sure i can find someone better to bring the heart strings out of people

[NAIRB]

There is an old Manx Phrase under threat here

 

There may well Not Be A Boat In The Morning

[Nosferatu]

I can't help but laugh at the sheer hypocrisy of the racket . They employ amongst others Latvian , Estonian and Russian engineers as well as a healthy smattering of other EU nationals.

I'm very sceptical about their claims that 300 of their staff are island based , admittedly I've got no idea how many people are in the offices and booking side of things but during my time there I'd say that at least 60% of the fast cat crews were NOT island based.

I can see why the crews are worried and unfortunately they have been put in that position by the piss poor management . Most businesses when losing their customers would try and win them back with btter deals , better service or some form of incentives , the sheer arrogance of MW to come out and essentially say "well the freight customers have got sick of being royally screwed and ran away so now you passengers are going to have to bend over and take it instead" . No wonder people are waiting to see him fall flat on his arse .If there are redundancies made and I hope there aren't then it's no fault of Mezeron or Tesco or Shoprite but down to the arrogance and pomposity of those who abused and milked the UA for every last penny and now that in harder economic times are wondering why people are looking for cheaper alternatives.

There has been some talk that we shouldn't let the racket be wiped out 180 yrs of history and all that , lets be honest "Isle of Man Steam Packet Company" is just a brand name now , the company is owned and controlled by an Australian investment bank .

If one of the big players in the ferry game came along and made them an offer ie AP Moller group or DFDS then I doubt we'd even have the name any more , the current vessels might escape with a Mearsk or DFDS prefix but the rest of it would be munched and would become Norfolk Line IoM or DFDS Irish sea .

Ideally I'd actually like to see the racket survive for the sake of all the good people that work there and that this gives the parent company a firm kick up the arse to get things into perspective , time will tell .

[theman]

I can't help but laugh at the sheer hypocrisy of the racket . They employ amongst others Latvian , Estonian and Russian engineers as well as a healthy smattering of other EU nationals.

I'm very sceptical about their claims that 300 of their staff are island based , admittedly I've got no idea how many people are in the offices and booking side of things but during my time there I'd say that at least 60% of the fast cat crews were NOT island based.

I can see why the crews are worried and unfortunately they have been put in that position by the piss poor management . Most businesses when losing their customers would try and win them back with btter deals , better service or some form of incentives , the sheer arrogance of MW to come out and essentially say "well the freight customers have got sick of being royally screwed and ran away so now you passengers are going to have to bend over and take it instead" . No wonder people are waiting to see him fall flat on his arse .If there are redundancies made and I hope there aren't then it's no fault of Mezeron or Tesco or Shoprite but down to the arrogance and pomposity of those who abused and milked the UA for every last penny and now that in harder economic times are wondering why people are looking for cheaper alternatives.

There has been some talk that we shouldn't let the racket be wiped out 180 yrs of history and all that , lets be honest "Isle of Man Steam Packet Company" is just a brand name now , the company is owned and controlled by an Australian investment bank .

If one of the big players in the ferry game came along and made them an offer ie AP Moller group or DFDS then I doubt we'd even have the name any more , the current vessels might escape with a Mearsk or DFDS prefix but the rest of it would be munched and would become Norfolk Line IoM or DFDS Irish sea .

Ideally I'd actually like to see the racket survive for the sake of all the good people that work there and that this gives the parent company a firm kick up the arse to get things into perspective , time will tell .

 

 

send them packing lol foreigners

ha ha ha ha what have they got a vote for????

union's for foreigners

2 vote..

WTF is that all about

[Andy730]

There is an old Manx Phrase under threat here

 

There may well Not Be A Boat In The Morning

 

Yes there will... It'll be redish in colour and carrying lots of containers

[Monkey boy]

You can't really blame the union for sticking up for its members. I think perhaps they have underestimated how much the racket is hated though.

[manshimajin]

There does seem to be a fair smattering of false jingoism and hypocrisy flying around from Mark Woodward and the Unions. OTOH if the current siuation continues there will be changes in both the freight and passenger services that we will have to adjust to.

 

What strikes me is that never once have I been asked by the IOMSPC either what I think of their service or what level, frequency or destination of service I would like to see. Maybe they have canvassed a lot of other users who frequent their sailings more often (we only manage about 6 returns p.a.). When there is talk of reduced numbers of sailings and fewer ports to go to does that really worry the majority of their clients? It may just be that if MW's threatened reductions/concentrations of service were actually tested with the IOMSPC's clients most would say 'that's fine'.

[Sean South]

they have just tried to charge me £310 for a car and one ,out friday and back on a monday !

I did the same trip two weeks ago for £167!

Actually The Steam Packet should be laughing all the way to the Bank now but Woodward obviously isn't shrewd enough to realise it: They can easily bang up the Non freight prices now and use the Mezeron issue as the excuse.

 

That may be true but why does it make the leaflet Bollocks. What specific parts are not true?

The bit about the "likely negative impact on Tourism and important festivals". That's bollocks. However, maybe those reading this from abroad should re-consider booking this far in advance and paying for their tickets now if, by their own admission, they may not be able to provide the service... If The IOMSPCo are unsure of their survival maybe they should suspend ticket sales for that far ahead!

 

The bit about The SP Crews operating under stringent Western European regulations is implying that Mezeron's ships do not have to do likewise when, in fact they do.

 

The bits about other Islands getting Govt subsidies is also a red herring: Cal Mac receive subsidies because they serve over a dozen islands that have small populations - nowhere near that of the Isle of Man. They should compare like with like.

 

And as for the comparisons of sailing numbers between 1995 and 2010, well, another huge red herring. 1995 was the infamous year that they messed up by chartering tha Lady of Man out to some foreign company (Spanish or Portugese iirc) and the deal to charter the seacat fell through so they were left with only the King Orry. Now, if they chose 94 or 96 there would have been a vastly different picture as they had The Orry, The Lady and the Seacat...

 

Also their prices were higher because the era of Low Fares Airlines hadn't commenced and we only had the choice of Steam Packet or Manx Airlines...

 

There is an old Manx Phrase under threat here

 

There may well Not Be A Boat In The Morning

Rubbish, As I've stated before they are pulling in at least £25 million on non freight business and that's with not much marketing effort. A viable business. If no other operator was interested (which is lost unlikely) I'd charter a vessel myself and run it.

[NAIRB]

Sean

 

It was a Joke

 

I did not really think there would not be a ferry link

[hboy]

I can't help but laugh at the sheer hypocrisy of the racket . They employ amongst others Latvian , Estonian and Russian engineers as well as a healthy smattering of other EU nationals. I'm very sceptical about their claims that 300 of their staff are island based , admittedly I've got no idea how many people are in the offices and booking side of things but during my time there I'd say that at least 60% of the fast cat crews were NOT island based.

 

What else would you expect from some of the hypocrites involved? It wasn't that long ago that some involved with the SPC were boasting of the mega payments they got when the old company was bought out by the current lot. Now Woodward has his begging bowl out for taxpayer cash. They are no worse than bankers - running a risky business with a ****ed business model and expecting that the public will pick up the tab now that its all gone a bit shitty. For once in my life I agree with Phil Gawne ... tough titty guys and there's no public money in the kitty.

[pongo]

You can't really blame the union for sticking up for its members. I think perhaps they have underestimated how much the racket is hated though.

 

It is quite ironic the RMT backing this campaign given that they have previously opposed Isle of Man flagging

[DRIVER]

BOLLOCKS !!

 

they have just tried to charge me £310 for a car and one ,out friday and back on a monday !

I did the same trip two weeks ago for £167!

 

That may be true but why does it make the leaflet Bollocks. What specific parts are not true?

 

The £56 each way, they wanted £155 each way to heysham. Easy jet have my money now !!

[Lost Login]

Actually The Steam Packet should be laughing all the way to the Bank now but Woodward obviously isn't shrewd enough to realise it: They can easily bang up the Non freight prices now and use the Mezeron issue as the excuse.

 

Doesn't the user agreement prevent that as it limits fare increases to Manx inflation or Manx Inflation less 1/2%

 

 

The bit about the "likely negative impact on Tourism and important festivals". That's bollocks.

So you can say for certain what the SP will do with regard to frequency of sailing etc. Seems to be that if and the word is If the SP cut back sailing to only that required by the User agreement it could have a negative impact on Tourism etc. If the SP sell the Snaefell that is potentially three round trips a day not operating during TT which is a few visitors not coming.

 

However, maybe those reading this from abroad should re-consider booking this far in advance and paying for their tickets now if, by their own admission, they may not be able to provide the service... If The IOMSPCo are unsure of their survival maybe they should suspend ticket sales for that far ahead!

 

I have to admit if I was booking with the SP now for a long way in the future I would book with a credit card although I am fairly sure they will still be going at TT all be it with possibly a lesser service.

 

I would be worried though you might find a lot of the provisional bookings changed.

 

 

And as for the comparisons of sailing numbers between 1995 and 2010, well, another huge red herring. 1995 was the infamous year that they messed up by chartering tha Lady of Man out to some foreign company (Spanish or Portugese iirc) and the deal to charter the seacat fell through so they were left with only the King Orry.

What you say may well be true about the Lady of Man and Sea Cat but that would not alter the Winter sailing figures when basically they are not used.

 

 

Rubbish, As I've stated before they are pulling in at least £25 million on non freight business and that's with not much marketing effort. A viable business. If no other operator was interested (which is lost unlikely) I'd charter a vessel myself and run it.

 

They may well be pulling in the level of business you say and the amount of business may make for a viable company. But that dies not alter the fact that if a company losses asubstantial amount of income it is going to cut its costs. Basically that means less sailings both freight as it has less freight to transport and passenger as they are less profitable and out of "season" many sail with low loadings.

 

You from these postings and others seem to have real issues with the SP. I have no idea why but fine. Personally I could not care whether the SP stays in business or not. I do care about the level of service we receive in the Island which you in your Ivory Tower in Ireland do not give a monkey about. It seems as long as you see the end of the SP you will be happy.

 

As a resident of the IoM as I say I do not care about who provides our ferry links but I do care that they provide a reasonable passenger service, such a service may be incompatable with maximising profits. So rather than moan about the SP, hope they will go to the wall and being convinced somebody will step in to follow the please make a postive suggestions on ways of ensureing that whoever follows them operate in a way they will provide a reasonable level of service when such provision does not maximise profits. That is all I care about, not who provides the service but the level of service provided. Or as you live in Ireland I presume you simply may not care.

Edited November 6, 2010 by Lost Login

[Lost Login]

BOLLOCKS !!

 

they have just tried to charge me £310 for a car and one ,out friday and back on a monday !

I did the same trip two weeks ago for £167!

 

That may be true but why does it make the leaflet Bollocks. What specific parts are not true?

 

The £56 each way, they wanted £155 each way to heysham. Easy jet have my money now !!

 

So you really do not understand "from £56".

 

I presume you expect all Easy Jet flights to cost £1 due to there advertising at times saying fares from £1.

[P.K.]

Has anyone else noticed how much cheaper the goods on the shelves are at Tesco, Shoprite and all these other places?

 

Has that got anything to do with the question of whether or not passenger and vehicle services should be subsidised by containerised freight costs ? Or for that matter with the question of whether or not the entire SPCo model is possibly skewed by borrowing and profit taking ? Or for that matter with the question of whether or not the UA is basically the right way to go - as others in shipping have been asking for years ?

 

OK, I give up pongo, has it got anything to do with the question of whether or not passenger and vehicle services should be subsidised by containerised freight costs ?

 

It's quite an interesting scenario. Yeah, well, sometimes I'm a bit sad. As I've posted (probably a few times) before any service provider would want to maximise leverage, so don't expect any reduction in human baggage costs no matter who the agent is. Now with using Mezeron for freight will there be a price reduction in places like Tesco? Errr, no, I suspect not. Tesco point to sale costs UK-wide will be staggeringly high, even with the ubiquitous Eddie Stobart as carrier (apparently all their wagons have girl's names - I just can't believe that so many girls are called "SCANIA".) The profiteering SP tariff's will easily be hidden amongst that monster clutter. However no-one likes to be ripped off. So I suspect, because I do not know, that the shift to Mezeron for the non-perishables in particular will be a locally made decision. Tsk tsk Mr Woodward et al, you set your pricing OTT enough to make them look for a viable alternative - bad mistake methinks. So the Tesco store pricing will probably stay the same. Sorry and all that.

 

Sure it could be that Mezeron are loss-loading to buy market share with an eye on the main prize - but somehow I doubt it...