Steam Packet Warns Of Disruption To Sailings

[Two-lane]

If you get really, really,  cheap labour from East Europe or even further afield, they will be happy to stay on board full-time - free lodgings and free food and maybe as much as 5 days holiday per year.

[Fred the shred]

It would suit crews from abroad to live on board but it is not what crews that live locally are used to or desire and you can see their point.   They would obviously prefer to be with their families and friends in their free time.   I hope something gets sorted for everyone’s sake I remember the last Seaman’s Strike it affected everyone especially the hospitality industry directly and the knock on effect was felt massively right across the board.    A difficult one to solve.

[Ringy Rose]

2 hours ago, A fool and his money..... said:

It could still transport goods and people while treating its staff with respect.

Absolutely. But the Steam Packet management believe the changes will give greater operational resilience and save money. Steam Packet fares are already high enough. Most other ferry operators already use this method of working- it’s not like this method is confined to the bottom-feeders in the sector like Irish Ferries or P&O.

[A fool and his money.....]

7 minutes ago, Ringy Rose said:

Absolutely. But the Steam Packet management believe the changes will give greater operational resilience and save money. Steam Packet fares are already high enough. Most other ferry operators already use this method of working- it’s not like this method is confined to the bottom-feeders in the sector like Irish Ferries or P&O.

Why would they save money?

[Cueey Lewis And The News]

1 hour ago, Fred the shred said:

It would suit crews from abroad to live on board but it is not what crews that live locally are used to or desire and you can see their point.   They would obviously prefer to be with their families and friends in their free time.  

There’s a real ironic correlation between this and the modern day slavery investigation. It seems to be fine for a government owned entity to force people to eat on site and sleep in bunks on a boat for weeks on end so that it can save money. But it’s wrong for a modern day slaver to give people cheap accommodation which they are holed up in week after week without going anywhere else. It’s exactly the same thing really. But if your employer is a government arms length entity it isn’t modern day slavery to be enforced to live in barracks for weeks on end. 

[Ringy Rose]

21 minutes ago, A fool and his money..... said:

Why would they save money?

Greater operational resilience saves money.

If it was costing them more they’d not be doing it would they?

16 minutes ago, Cueey Lewis And The News said:

It seems to be fine for a government owned entity to force people to eat on site and sleep in bunks on a boat for weeks on end so that it can save money

I’ll let my mate who works on the rigs off Orkney pulling in six figures a year know that she’s really just a victim of modern slavery 🤣

[Cueey Lewis And The News]

2 minutes ago, Ringy Rose said:

I’ll let my mate who works on the rigs off Orkney pulling in six figures a year know that she’s really just a victim of modern slavery 🤣

But your mate who probably doesn’t exist is being held captive. No different to the new SPC contracts. Having your environment controlled 24/7 and made to sleep and eat on site with limited chances of having any other life. It’s the exact sort of employment practice that has created significant problems for other employers. But this is government funded so it’s different. It can’t possibly be analogous with slavery to force someone to live on a ferry for several successive weeks on end so that the employer can save money. 

[Passing Time]

1 minute ago, Cueey Lewis And The News said:

But your mate who probably doesn’t exist is being held captive. No different to the new SPC contracts. Having your environment controlled 24/7 and made to sleep and eat on site with limited chances of having any other life. It’s the exact sort of employment practice that has created significant problems for other employers. But this is government funded so it’s different. It can’t possibly be analogous with slavery to force someone to live on a ferry for several successive weeks on end so that the employer can save money. 

Is there no end to the rubbish you consistently post?

[HiVibes]

35 minutes ago, Passing Time said:

Is there no end to the rubbish you consistently post?

Bring back the halycon days of Neil Down and Dilligaf sucking each other off in a drunken rage.

[Banker]

Boats cancelled today , 

[Cueey Lewis And The News]

8 hours ago, Passing Time said:

Is there no end to the rubbish you consistently post?

You’re so funny (actually you aren’t, you’re just another annoying and sad forum clown who hasn’t said anything relevant or interesting in at least 10 years). 

[Happier diner]

8 hours ago, HiVibes said:

Bring back the halycon days of Neil Down and Dilligaf sucking each other off in a drunken rage.

At least they were interesting and funny. 

[Banker]

2 hours ago, Cueey Lewis And The News said:

You’re so funny (actually you aren’t, you’re just another annoying and sad forum clown who hasn’t said anything relevant or interesting in at least 10 years). 

Don’t you realize yet you’re the sad clown with major issues 😂

Edited December 17, 2023 by Banker

[Albert Tatlock]

No more personal abuse please - and cluttering up threads with it - or more temporary bans might be issued.

[John Wright]

I’ve arrived in Spain for Christmas.

Had my first trip on the Manxman on Tuesday evening followed by 2 nights on Brittany Ferries MV Salamanca from Portsmouth to Santander.

Why only now for my first trip? Well, I was away all October and didn’t travel by ferry in November.

MX is smart, it sailed on time, arrived on time, disembarkation was fast. I was in my Lancaster hotel by midnight.

It was deserted. The accessible parking spaces next to the lift on deck 5 are in the bow. My lounge was at the stern on deck 5. I couldn’t have made that without using a wheelchair. On the Ben and Manannan the distance is just achievable.

The spaces are right in front of the fans that are supposed to ventilate the car decks. They blow very strongly. It was a cold night and it made getting my chair out of the car very difficult.

There are water tight/fire doors protecting the lift shafts and stairwells. That’s good. They are electrically operated and slow. They could be open during loading and unloading. They weren’t. Created a bottleneck.

Some of the push pad controls are plastic. Some have clearly been installed as an afterthought, with cheap surface mounted trunking. Looks cheap. Mainly some of them are wrongly placed. They’re so far from the door that by the time you’ve pushed, turned around, got to the door, it’s already closing.

Lifts are great, as is the ability to move between decks at sea. However on deck 8 all the doors along the corridor were closed and difficult to open. There are systems where they are held open electronically and only close when required. They’re a fail for chair users, those using sticks or crutches, or with young kids in tow.

Dislike the location of exec lounge, side rear. Prefer to be at front. It’s not cheap. £500 a year for a couple.

Again the door access by touch pad key card is too far from the door itself. It’s a huge lounge. Nicely decorated. Lots of USB and power points.

The door on the accessible loo takes 40 seconds to close. Seems like a lifetime if your need is urgent. Worse, on exiting, the door blocks the corridor, it opens outward rather than slides. So a long wait to go the other way.

very little unreserved seating. Mainly paid for, reserved, lounges. Upselling on a grand scale. I couldn’t open the doors to the Eatery restaurant or bar area on my own. The cafeteria was closed.

Shop ok. But no dropped area on counter for wheelchair users. Oh, the shop doors were kept open.

Turning in Heysham was laboriously slow, but plenty of space. Juddering vibration was bad.

Brittany Ferries have had similar issues with all three of their e-flexers, but all seemed resolved on Salamanca.

Waiting at Portsmouth, I arrived very early, 2 condor Channel Island ferries arrived and departed. Both were late in and out. Two BF ferries arrived, both late, one from France and one from Spain, and three went out, St Malo, Caen, Santander. All late. Mine by over an hour.

Port Security heightened. They were pulling for random inspection about 15% of all cars, motorhomes and light vans.