On-time ferry performance on the Langdale run was 62 per cent in June, up slightly from last year, according to an operations report presented by Captain Daniel Kuiper, senior master of the Queen of Surrey, at the Southern Sunshine Coast Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC) meeting on Tuesday, June 29.
In May, however, on-time performance dipped just below 60 per cent, more than 10 percentage points beneath last year's performance.
Kuiper said recent technical problems with both the Surrey and the Queen of Coquitlam affected on-time performance. He also said that between April and May 18, the Langdale route saw delays resulting from Lloyd's Register of Shipping load line requirements which reduced the vehicle load weight the Coquitlam could carry; those requirements, he said, have been relaxed until September.
Communications
Gibsons Coun. Gerry Tretick stressed the importance for B.C. Ferries to clearly communicate reasons for ferry delays, citing the June 4 oil leak on the Coquitlam as a time when communications broke down.
B.C. Ferries vice president of communications Mark Stefanson responded that communication is a big priority for the corporation.
FAC member and meeting chair Jakob Knaus suggested that B.C. Ferries could earn points with the public by expanding the details provided on website service notices, instead of using the cryptic "operational delay."
"The public is normally very forgiving if it's a medical emergency or if it is some unforeseen circumstances," he said. "If you could incorporate, in detail, the reason why there is a delay, that would give us a feeling that the channels are open, [that] [B.C. Ferries] are not hiding anything."
Stefanson called Knaus's comment "a very good point," and said he would look into it.
Parking passes
To address capacity issues at the Langdale Terminal parking lot, B.C. Ferries has started selling commuter parking passes for $25 per month for the overflow parking lot, regional director of terminal operations Jason Bowman said. The passes will be in effect from Monday through Saturday. Currently, he said, 25 passes are available.
Experience Card
B.C. Ferries asked the FAC about preferred options for dealing with a revenue shortage due to the Experience Card's higher-than-predicted popularity on the Coast.
"The average fare yield is going down from what we thought it would [be] because there's a migration to the Experience Card which is deeper than we thought it would be," chief financial officer Rob Clarke said in an interview after the meeting.
Clarke said this has been an issue for the past couple years, but that the "gap" between predicted and actual average fare yield is widening, making it an increasingly pressing issue.
Short of re-structuring the entire Experience Card program, Clarke said, the two solutions to the revenue loss are to either increase ferry fares across the whole route or to decrease Experience Card discounts and thus the migration toward the discount system. He summed up the FAC's feedback as: "Much as we hate it, we'd rather see overall fares go up rather than a change in the [Experience Card] discount rate."
