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Steam Packet - Huge Loss


John Wright

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24 minutes ago, Frances said:

I suspect Covid would have altered the freight - how much construction was done? all of which used to involve imported building material.  Why they ran two boats daily defeats me as a bi or tri weekly sailing would I think have sufficed for foodstuffs etc

Much building stuff comes in via Ramsey. However building work was, for the most part and exempted activity. It carried on.

Tesco, coop, M&S, Shoprite and Spar get fresh food daily overnight.

There’s all the Amazon and other on line stuff, which will have gone through the roof. Plus parcel force. All the big local courier firms have a huge increase in business. 

The times I’ve travelled with car, three times during the pandemic, the freight has been busy. No quieter than usual.

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They could have run one sailing a day. There was massive deck capacity for trailers due to there being very few cars. It would have challenged logistics for sure, but it would have reduced fuel costs by 50% - and the environmental impact. 

Sailing twice a day was flag waving. Nothing else.

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7 minutes ago, Frances said:

well if freight remained the same or even increased then maybe no TT or MGP was to blame - I guess 40,000 paying maybe £200 a head would give a lost revenue of £8M and the season's tourists maybe a similar figure

I’m pretty sure that it’s down to locals.

2019 600,000 ferry passenger movements, including TT. 

2020 70,000 ferry passenger movements. That includes  47.000 in Jan to March. So 23,000 over the remaining 9 months. An average of less than 100 per week each way.

lots of Manxies take their car. Strip out the 40,000 it’s 560,000. 280,000 in and 280,000 out.

Say it averages £75 a head. That’s over £20 million lost. I arrived at an average cost of car + 4 being £300 return. Clearly many cars are single or double occupancy and there’s a fare smattering of foot passengers.

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5 minutes ago, The Voice of Reason said:

It’s not like British Airways, EasyJet, Ryanair, Fred Olsen, MSC, etc have taken a hit in this current climate is it?

Bloody useless Steam Packet

I don’t disagree. We’ve spent 4.5 million and counting on subsidising LoganAir. If the government didn’t own the Steam Packet the private owners would have had us over a barrel for subsidy. As it is they’ll no doubt capitalise the loss.

I posted the P&L as a snapshot and record. The press and no one else had spotted it.

I think the Steam Packet have done a brilliant job. It’s a blip caused by external sources. But it illustrates just how fragile assumed income streams can be in business.

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To be fair/fare/fayre, the Racket were between a rock and a hard place when it came to keeping a service going.

Most of the freight comes overnight, so it can be distributed early morning, and the fresh stuff is on the shelves same day. Putting it onto a daytime sailing would add another day to its delivery time, because it would arrive here after everyone has knocked off for the day. Newspapers would have to come by plane (even more expensive).

Most passengers come on daytime sailings, and with few passengers travelling, it looks easy to take off the daytime sailing...... but..... most of the people coming over will have been "essential workers", and making them travel overnight is not exactly looking after them!

It looks as though Government decided that the schedule ought to be maintained, and for once I think they were right.

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17 hours ago, Frances said:

I suspect Covid would have altered the freight - how much construction was done? all of which used to involve imported building material.  Why they ran two boats daily defeats me as a bi or tri weekly sailing would I think have sufficed for foodstuffs etc

How would a bi or tri weekly sailing suit fresh food, deliveries of essential materials/goods and key workers? 

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