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Post by Hardy on Jul 18, 2007 17:55:31 GMT -8
I think that the reason there seems to be less care going into getting as many cars as possible on a sailing is the bonus each captain gets for "on time performance". I know one captain on the SOVI is particulary attached to his extra 30 grand. This one captain wanted to leave with 1/2 capacity, even though there were still 3 lanes in the lot to be loaded. Eventually in this case the terminal tower didn't give him clearance to depart, but I'm told there was quite a standoff. Hmmm, while I can see BCFS wanting on-time performance, when you have HEAVY TRAFFIC, there is nothing the captain can do to speed up loading, unless there are more crew members that can be assigned to deckhand duties to speedily load the traffic tight. If there are crew members that are able to do this as well as their other duties, then bring 'em down for the loading time, have them stuff cars close together (or at least be the ones that "guide" them close to the one in front of them, not necessarily the ones that assign which cars/trucks to which lanes when they first board the ship...). Load em up, get outta port and sail. I can tell you this -- if I was ever sitting in a line up at a terminal and I was to know that there was someone wanting to leave with less than a full load just to get their bonus, I would raise such a stink and bombard Fort Street with so many faxes, emails, letters and p-o'd petitions, that that captain would be lucky to get an actual Lego Boat to play with in his father's bathtub!  |
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Post by nolonger on Jul 18, 2007 19:17:02 GMT -8
My two cents, from some comments I've read here,
T.C. rules dictate that passengers are allowed one door from which to exit the vehicle, (ie., slide across lady and get out the driver's side and watch that gear shift on the way!)
More deckhands will not make for a faster load. Biggest terminal delays are caused by passengers. ( dead batteries, sleeping, my wife is in the washroom, the whole family is in the washroom, we were in the troller pub, etc.)
There aren't enough deckands to have one for each individual lane to wave you up to park a foot away from the vehicle in front. Everyone with at least an "N" on their car should be able to do this anyway. (Common sense!) In the old days there were 6 lanes on 1 car deck and 6 deckies to load it. Today there are usually 5 deckies on a C Class to look after 2 1/2 cardecks. and just 1 to look after 8 lanes on the upper deck. WCB have rules about people working within their assigned areas. Bringing down the catering to load cars is unsafe and then you'd all complain that the burgers weren't ready and the washrooms are a mess and there is pop spilled on my seat and a dirty diaper under it!
I know for a fact that Masters get a bit antsy to get under way. I doubt that one would leave cars behind to leave on time. I know for a fact that a certain incompetent Chief officer on rte 30 has tried to leave without taking all the vehicles and a half empty car deck!
It's summer, it's busy it always has been and always will be. You ride ferries because of where you live or work. You knew that coming in so get used to it!
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Post by Queen of Nanaimo Teen on Jul 18, 2007 21:39:14 GMT -8
It's funny you guys are talking about this. I was just on the Kuper the other day and the crew members were joking around saying "Well, they could just send ol' Klitsa up there, she's not doin' anything!"
(P.S, I will post details of my trip when I get home on the 20th)
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Post by Hardy on Jul 19, 2007 4:15:15 GMT -8
It's funny you guys are talking about this. I was just on the Kuper the other day and the crew members were joking around saying "Well, they could just send ol' Klitsa up there, she's not doin' anything!" (P.S, I will post details of my trip when I get home on the 20th) I suppose us "arm-chair quarterbacks" and the deckies are the only ones that really think clearly on these topics, whereas management tends to look for "much more complicated answers"  |
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Post by Islander21 on Jul 19, 2007 9:19:50 GMT -8
wooooah there charlie. Just because the ship's leaving with space on deck doesn't mean the Chief Officer is incompetent. Unless it's the very last sailing of the night the tower will usually cut off the traffic early(as in before the ship is full) to get it cleared faster. This is especially true on the major routes when there is another ferry an hour or two away. The CO doesn't have a call in this.
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Post by Hardy on Jul 19, 2007 14:58:11 GMT -8
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Post by Retrovision on Jul 19, 2007 16:07:06 GMT -8
This is all reminding me of the retractable ramps debate. We know that using those on the Spirits will delay the schedule and can assume that's why they're seemingly rarely used these days (correct me if I'm wrong), and this was demonstrated to me first-hand on Saturday when Chris and I, watching to see if we'd get aboard the Spirit of Vancouver Island after the cancellation of the hour-earlier scheduled sailing of the Queen of Vancouver at noon and assuming we wouldn't by the break in loading after a long pause, and we were actually boarded eventually parking below the ramps. This inevitable delay was demonstrated by our passing the Spirit of British Columbia at the entrance to Active Pass on the north side near Sturdies Bay.
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Post by Hardy on Jul 19, 2007 20:29:30 GMT -8
This is all reminding me of the retractable ramps debate. We know that using those on the Spirits will delay the schedule and can assume that's why they're seemingly rarely used these days (correct me if I'm wrong), and this was demonstrated to me first-hand on Saturday when Chris and I, watching to see if we'd get aboard the Spirit of Vancouver Island after the cancellation of the hour-earlier scheduled sailing of the Queen of Vancouver at noon and assuming we wouldn't by the break in loading after a long pause, and we were actually boarded eventually parking below the ramps. This inevitable delay was demonstrated by our passing the Spirit of British Columbia at the entrance to Active Pass on the north side near Sturdies Bay. Pardon the directness - are you FOR stuffing each boat full, even if it means the sailing is DELAYED, or are you AGAINST it, saying that they should slam on the car load as fast and loose as possible and sail ACCORDING TO SCHEDULE regardless of traffic volume?? This seems to be a fairly hot-button issue, moreso than I thought it would be!!  How long do you estimate the loading delay was while they played with the ramps? Do you recall? Does anyone know off-hand the capacity of those ramps and the gallery deck on the S-class? I would imagine that the capacity is more than enough to warrant the extra time, but I am very biased on this issue.  |
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Post by Retrovision on Jul 19, 2007 20:39:53 GMT -8
This is all reminding me of the retractable ramps debate. We know that using those on the Spirits will delay the schedule and can assume that's why they're seemingly rarely used these days (correct me if I'm wrong), and this was demonstrated to me first-hand on Saturday when Chris and I, watching to see if we'd get aboard the Spirit of Vancouver Island after the cancellation of the hour-earlier scheduled sailing of the Queen of Vancouver at noon and assuming we wouldn't by the break in loading after a long pause, and we were actually boarded eventually parking below the ramps. This inevitable delay was demonstrated by our passing the Spirit of British Columbia at the entrance to Active Pass on the north side near Sturdies Bay. Pardon the directness - are you FOR stuffing each boat full, even if it means the sailing is DELAYED, or are you AGAINST it,... My 1st reaction to that is my last: Why argue one point or another, why not come to a concensus on what is most logical, so why argue at all and waste energy?
Isn't this politics' flaw?But that's me. How long do you estimate the loading delay was while they played with the ramps? Do you recall? maybe 10 minutes |
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Post by kylefossett on Jul 21, 2007 17:41:20 GMT -8
i have been out of town, at the cabin on saltspring for the last week and am just catching up on my readings here.
the most obvious reason for not doing a major ship movement while the oak bay was out of service is an easy one. why affect many routes? with all the ideas involving upto 5 different ships discussed on this thread you would be disrupting multiple routes. so instead of inconvienencing the passengers on route 2 you will inconvienence route 2,3,9,9a. sounds very customer service friendly to me. not to mention how would you crew the cumberland out of long harbour when the majority of long harbour staff have never worked that vessel before
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Post by Hardy on Jul 21, 2007 17:56:18 GMT -8
Pardon the directness - are you FOR stuffing each boat full, even if it means the sailing is DELAYED, or are you AGAINST it,... My 1st reaction to that is my last: Why argue one point or another, why not come to a concensus on what is most logical, so why argue at all and waste energy?
Isn't this politics' flaw?But that's me. I am just trying to see where you sit, with regards to the fence, on this issue. I am FOR making sure that each sailing has as many of the ON-TIME arriving vehicles boarded as space will safely allowed, without regard for how long the boat is REASONABLY delayed while vehicles are REASONABLY accomodated. Be there by the cut-off period and be boarded, if there is space. Don't send a ship away with an 89% load if there are two more lanes of traffic queued up waiting, just because there is "another boat in an hour". But where do you stand on this? I am unclear on your position based on your posts. How long do you estimate the loading delay was while they played with the ramps? Do you recall? maybe 10 minutes That's a small delay for using the hoistable/retractable ramps. I find this MORE than acceptable given the number of vehicles that can be accomodated. |
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Post by nolonger on Jul 22, 2007 17:28:55 GMT -8
wooooah there charlie. Just because the ship's leaving with space on deck doesn't mean the Chief Officer is incompetent. Unless it's the very last sailing of the night the tower will usually cut off the traffic early(as in before the ship is full) to get it cleared faster. This is especially true on the major routes when there is another ferry an hour or two away. The CO doesn't have a call in this. Now hold on there Ralph, I said tried and that's not the only reason this person is incompetant and rte 30 has a 2 1/2 hour wait til the next one! |
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Post by Retrovision on Jul 23, 2007 15:56:54 GMT -8
why affect many routes? with all the ideas involving upto 5 different ships discussed on this thread you would be disrupting multiple routes. so instead of inconvienencing the passengers on route 2 you will inconvienence route 2,3,9,9a. sounds very customer service friendly to me. It actually does sound more customer- friendly to me atleast, keeping in-mind that I try to treat friends with fairness and equality, just like it makes sense to me for drivers all around the province to fund transit all around the province, despite most of that money usually going to few actual centres, for the betterment of the entire province. From the arguments I hear from many, I get the impression that a lot of people consider living on an island a privilege that you should have to pay a premium for; given this argument and in the same respect I'd say that this should not be a descriminatory notion and that inconveniencing more routes if effecting the same ammount of people is the only way to be fair, despite the larger blanket of possibly negative press. My 1st reaction to that is my last: Why argue one point or another, why not come to a concensus on what is most logical, so why argue at all and waste energy?
Isn't this politics' flaw?But that's me. I am just trying to see where you sit, with regards to the fence, on this issue. I am FOR making sure that each sailing has as many of the ON-TIME arriving vehicles boarded as space will safely allowed, without regard for how long the boat is REASONABLY delayed while vehicles are REASONABLY accomodated. Be there by the cut-off period and be boarded, if there is space. Don't send a ship away with an 89% load if there are two more lanes of traffic queued up waiting, just because there is "another boat in an hour". But where do you stand on this? I am unclear on your position based on your posts. That's a small delay for using the hoistable/retractable ramps. I find this MORE than acceptable given the number of vehicles that can be accomodated. To be honest I do not know enough about the debate to give an educated-enough response, partly through taking the vast majority of my trips aboard ferries as a foot passenger. If I were to swing hanging from one side of the fence or the other, I'd have to side with you, Hardy. But then again the passenger will always come first in my books, and I'd have never changed the term to customer also.  |
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