BC Ferries busy summer season begins today with more sailings and more staff, though customers should expect some cancellations as staffing shortage continues.
BC Ferries is putting five additional ferries into service on routes between Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast, and the Southern Gulf Islands. These supplemental vessels require hundreds of additional crew to provide over 4,700 additional sailings over the three-month period ending Labour Day. BC Ferries expects to move nearly 2.6 million vehicles and almost 7 million passengers through September 5.
In support of the transition, a system-wide hiring initiative (the largest in the company’s 63-year history) has added more than 1,200 staff in the last year, including 140 recently recruited professional mariners with more than 70 from Ukraine.
“We’ve done a lot to ensure smooth sailing this summer, but we need to be prepared that not all ships will sail all of the time,” said BC Ferries President and CEO Nicolas Jimenez. “Even though we have more people, we are short back-up staff in key positions to cover unexpected absences. I hope customers will continue to offer their understanding as we grapple with retirements and a global shortage of 21,000 professional mariners.”
By regulation, vessels require a minimum number of skilled mariners before a sailing can depart. Back-up crews are particularly thin at Swartz Bay and Nanaimo, meaning even one or two crew absences can result in a cancelled sailing. In the event of a sailing cancellation, BC Ferries does its utmost to accommodate customers and has published guidelines on what to expect on its website.
Last year, between June, July and August, BC Ferries was forced to cancel more than 300 sailings due to crew shortages. That represents 0.7 per cent of all sailings during that period.
“The issues we’re facing are complex and while we’re hiring more people, boosting training budgets and cross-training staff so they can be re-deployed in areas of greatest need, getting to long-term reliability and sustainability will take time,” said Jimenez. “I offer my heartfelt thanks to the BC Ferries team for their ongoing dedication, offering back-up when they can to mitigate impacts to customer service where possible.”
This spring, BC Ferries launched its new app to make travel easier by allowing customers to make bookings, manage trips and monitor service alerts.