Steam Packet Warns Of Disruption To Sailings

[Jarndyce]

14 minutes ago, Omobono said:

there seems to be a story going about that Manxman needs new batteries  at a cost of somewhere approaching £3 million

£3M worth of batteries?   That’s a lot of sausages.

[Happier diner]

23 minutes ago, NoTailT said:

Surely not..?

Yeah. And JD wetherspoons are taking over the bar for TT. 

[John Wright]

54 minutes ago, Omobono said:

there seems to be a story going about that Manxman needs new batteries  at a cost of somewhere approaching £3 million apparently  she was fitted with batteries  that were approaching end of life or replacement , also some of her electrical equipment seems to be somewhat dated , anyone out there  heard anything similar , ? 

 

 

44 minutes ago, NoTailT said:

Surely not..?

 

39 minutes ago, Jarndyce said:

£3M worth of batteries?   That’s a lot of sausages.

 

20 minutes ago, Happier diner said:

Yeah. And JD wetherspoons are taking over the bar for TT. 

Think someone posted, months ago, that one of the two banks of batteries, for use for low emissions, whilst manoeuvring in port, had failed, that the manufacturer had stopped producing maritime batteries, and this was a problem.

The batteries were supposed to give 3 hours but only give one.

Was mid December it was posted.

[Andy Onchan]

13 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

It has to be admitted that the Steam Packet's reaction to the Which? survey is probably more revealing that the survey is.  In its long whinge in response (all helpfully printed by Manx Radio) there's very little about striving to improve things or taking all criticism seriously.  Just prolonged and bombastic self-justification, repeating all the same points we hear from them all the time and holding up things they are legally obliged to do as some sort of badge of excellence.

They also claim "Steam Packet journeys are classed as short international voyages between the Isle of Man and the UK/Ireland, rather than domestic services as outlined in the Which? Survey" as if meant they should really be compared with those.  But the worst performing by far of those is P&O on the Dover-Calais route who get 55% (no one else is below 66%).  Compared to the Steam packet's 56%.  So they'd still be down with the worst.

It's also quite revealing that they haven't even looked at the Which survey properly - even though that might have helped their case.  So they say it "was undertaken in December 2023, in the middle of the worst weather there's been for a number of years" but if you look at the survey it was based on "1,953 experiences of taking a ferry from the UK in the past three years"[1].  If they had been bothered to understand this, they could have claimed things would be improved with the arrival of the Manxman.  Similarly the tables show now rating in some categories (eg Food and Drink) as "too few responses to rate"[2].  Clearly not that many people actually responded and they could claim it was unrepresentative.  It also took them a fortnight to respond and then only after local media had reported on it.

It's telling too that they have no customer satisfaction surveys of their own to respond with.  Either they're truly dreadful or they think actually asking the public how things are going is beneath them.

 

[1]  I suspect this means that the number of people who responded will be even fewer, as some people who did will have made numerous ferry journeys over the time, possibly with numerous operators.  For all we know 1,900 of the 'experiences' could be from John Wright.

[2]  It's not clear what limit Which? used, but normally something in the range 30-50 is considered sensible.

So all 1,953 experiences travelled to the Isle of Man and all the other destinations? Who paid for these journeys?

[Non-Believer]

38 minutes ago, Andy Onchan said:

So all 1,953 experiences travelled to the Isle of Man and all the other destinations? Who paid for these journeys?

That would have been Crazy Dave during his globe-trotting....

[asitis]

14 hours ago, Non-Believer said:

They're clearly unaware that Govt effectively own the Steamie with the entire motivation from the get-go being that profits be maximised to contribute to the bail-out of Govt liabilities and debts.

To be pedantic, and I apologise, you and I and the rest of the taxpayers on the island own the Steam Packet. The liabilities and debts bit is not going well, as we are now 300 million into the company, although having paid my June fare that would have helped LOL !

[P.K.]

12 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

They've always been a lot like that to be honest.  It's what having a monopoly for near 200 years does.  It's just that with government now imposing management, the decisions are looking even more arbitrary and the communications are even more touchy and indignant.

This from the IOMSPCo response to the "Which" report made me smile:

"In accordance with the SSA, increases in standard fares are capped at a maximum of the annual Manx Consumer Prices Index."

Errr excuse me so what was the 2024 percentage rise in fares?

You know, why didn't you give us the actual number?

There must be a reason for that. I wonder what it is...?

[Gladys]

20 minutes ago, asitis said:

To be pedantic, and I apologise, you and I and the rest of the taxpayers on the island own the Steam Packet. The liabilities and debts bit is not going well, as we are now 300 million into the company, although having paid my June fare that would have helped LOL !

To be pedantic, no we, the taxpayers, do not own the Steam Packet, Treasury does. 

Yes, taxpayers' money has been used to fund the purchase and loans.  But, in a way, that is no different to a bank taking deposits and those deposits being used to make loans.  The depositors do not own the loans.   I do get your point,  but the real point is that Treasury should act as a shareholder and lender bearing in mind its obligations to the taxpayer to safeguard public funds.

As for how much the government is into the company, if you are including the Liverpool landing stage, that cost is nothing to do with the Steam Packet.  It is an overall cost of shipping links to the island, and was not asked for by the Steam Packet but user costs are for it to meet. 

That's pedantry! 

[asitis]

9 minutes ago, Gladys said:

nothing to do with the Steam Packet.

I agree, however it's everything to do with the people who supply the money for Government largesse and profligacy i.e. the taxpayers ! I agree with your post, I particularly like the " safeguard public funds", just wondered when they might consider doing this ?

[Gladys]

4 minutes ago, asitis said:

I agree, however it's everything to do with the people who supply the money for Government largesse and profligacy i.e. the taxpayers ! I agree with your post, I particularly like the " safeguard public funds", just wondered when they might consider doing this ?

Indeed. 

[La Colombe]

12 hours ago, Omobono said:

 Manxman needs new batteries  at a cost of somewhere approaching £3 million 

 

[Happier diner]

12 hours ago, John Wright said:

 

 

 

Think someone posted, months ago, that one of the two banks of batteries, for use for low emissions, whilst manoeuvring in port, had failed, that the manufacturer had stopped producing maritime batteries, and this was a problem.

The batteries were supposed to give 3 hours but only give one.

Was mid December it was posted.

One might assume that this will be a warranty/defect matter and not one for us on here to start panicking about.

[Dirty Buggane]

7 minutes ago, Happier diner said:

One might assume that this will be a warranty/defect matter and not one for us on here to start panicking about.

To be sure, the mighty intellect that is the IOM government would not be signing up to anything that has not an iron clad legal(as overseen by the might that is the AG's officr) indemnity clause that will cover every thing in the alphabet. Apart from anything beginning with B, oh shite.

[Roger Mexico]

4 hours ago, Andy Onchan said:

So all 1,953 experiences travelled to the Isle of Man and all the other destinations? Who paid for these journeys?

The travellers did themselves in the course of their daily lives, holidays etc plus some would have been paid by companies if they were travelling on business.  Which? would have done this, like their other surveys, by asking members of their Connect panel about recent experiences (in the last three years in this case) of ferry travel.  These are people who are subscribers to Which? and who keen enough to join this panel on top, so they are probably more critical interested in good service than average, but that would apply to their assessment of all the ferries they took. 

These people were asked to assess each operator and route combination they had used, but Which? seem to have combined routes run by the same operator where there weren't enough responses.  The number who responded who used the Steam Packet would have been quite low (almost certainly under 100) because there weren't enough useful replies for some questions.

2 hours ago, Gladys said:

To be pedantic, no we, the taxpayers, do not own the Steam Packet, Treasury does. 

Not according to the Steam Packet statement:

In addition, last year, we delivered a fleet strategy proposal to the DOI that we believe will ensure the Company’s success in delivering what our customers and shareholders [plural] expect of us.

We thought of nominating you to the Board, but you're clearly disqualified by knowing more than the management.

[WTF]

47 minutes ago, Happier diner said:

One might assume that this will be a warranty/defect matter and not one for us on here to start panicking about.

if there is any possible way for us to throw money away we will be up for it.

Edited May 13 by WTF