P&O Suspended

[ryanh]

DFDS' email states that they "strongly advise arriving at the port 2 hours before"...so no lie-in for me tomorrow! 

Your first problem will be getting to the port !

There are road works at Brenley corner but I suggest A2/M2/A2 if you're coming from up country. The latter part of A2 down past Canterbury and into Dover was fine the other day. Last I knew, M20 after jct 8 was HGV's only. Local traffic using A20 causing congestion. 

That is very helpful, thank you. I normally always use the A2/M2 when coming to Dover. We are staying at the Premier Inn near the port tonight, originally we booked this to avoid an early start and I'm now even more glad that we did. 
 

[hhvferry]

The Pride of Hull is now back in service.

[hhvferry]

Jean-Marc Roue warns of more trouble ahead if the race to the bottom continues.

[hhvferry]

Spirit of Britain has passed her inspection and is now out and about, presumably on trials.

P&O Ferries: Spirit of Britain cleared to sail after inspection

[hhvferry]

Norbay is now back in service on the Liverpool- Dublin route.

[hhvferry]

European Highlander back now as well so the Larne route is back to full strength.

The Stena Nordica's additional sailings on Stena's Cairnryan route end with the 0925 from Belfast on Monday. She is scheduled to recommence service on the Karlskrona-Gdynia route on Thursday 28th.

[elaine80]

Friends of ours recently travelled to Northern Ireland for a family wedding. They travelled with P&O (the tickets had been bought a while ago) and there were very few passengers on board. Their son travelled with Stena and that crossing was rammed full. I guess folk who didn't have prior bookings have taken the safe option and booked Stena.
 

[Shipping-Forecast]

Split Ships Losing Power and P&O Ferry European Causeway Losing Power In Irish Sea as they deserve their own topic, plus to keep on topic about the P&O Crew Suspensions and continuing direct fallout from that situation.

Please add anything not directly related to recent P&O debacle in a new topic.

[vikingvoyager]

It looks like passenger sailings from Dover are about to recommence:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61309128

[northy]

It looks like passenger sailings from Dover are about to recommence:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61309128

I’m watching with interest over whether this debacle will affect their passenger numbers. I’ve already spoken to a couple of people who have told me how uncomfortable they feel about it…followed by ‘of course they run the only route we could go on to…’ so who knows, maybe passenger numbers will bounce back?

[David]

It looks like passenger sailings from Dover are about to recommence:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61309128

I’m watching with interest over whether this debacle will affect their passenger numbers. I’ve already spoken to a couple of people who have told me how uncomfortable they feel about it…followed by ‘of course they run the only route we could go on to…’ so who knows, maybe passenger numbers will bounce back?

They only have one ship on the route at present, they need another 3 to get back to 'normal'

[dojidave]

...so who knows, maybe passenger numbers will bounce back?

sad as it is, people have short memories and are generally ruled by their wallets 😞

[colinb]

sad as it is, people have short memories and are generally ruled by their wallets

Very true but the average passenger just wants to get from A to B and isn't interested in the internal company infighting. As with the airlines, price trumps quality service and the people in charge of the service providers are well aware of this.

If you are travelling Dover - Calais basically all you need is a place to park your car and a place to park your backside for the 90 minute journey. Nothing else really matters.

[dojidave]

...all you need is a place to park your car and a place to park your backside for the 90 minute journey. Nothing else really matters.

and that's why we've got a race to the bottom ☹

[colinb]

and that's why we've got a race to the bottom

Yes, but hopefully not literally!

It's all the 'lowest common denominator' effect really, just as BF is standardising on anodyne EFlexers in place of individualistic ships with character. 'Does the job' but not especially exciting. A bit of colour goes out of the world...

Be grateful for what you had as you won't be seeing it again.

[colinb]

Pride of Kent has failed safety inspection for the third time reports say.

[hhvferry]

Pride of Kent has failed safety inspection for the third time reports say.

I do wonder if these ships are being given more thorough inspections than they have had in the normal course of events before now. That may be justified but it seems strange that some of the paperwork etc deficiencies would have suddenly arisen.

[Danim]

I do wonder if these ships are being given more thorough inspections than they have had in the normal course of events before now.

More than likely. But it does raise the question of how thorough were the inspection in the past? Speak to many former employees of P&O and it was regularly stated that the Pride of Kent and Canterbury were/are in a particularly poor state below decks.
Of course this doesn't mean they are un-safe but combined with potentially poorly trained new crew, who will be unfamiliar with systems that may need a lot of attention, it cannot be the best combination! 

[hhvferry]

I do wonder if these ships are being given more thorough inspections than they have had in the normal course of events before now.

More than likely. But it does raise the question of how thorough were the inspection in the past? Speak to many former employees of P&O and it was regularly stated that the Pride of Kent and Canterbury were/are in a particularly poor state below decks.
Of course this doesn't mean they are un-safe but combined with potentially poorly trained new crew, who will be unfamiliar with systems that may need a lot of attention, it cannot be the best combination! 

No I agree, some of the visible maintenance on P&O ships in the past decade has been appalling so one does wonder what it was like behind the scenes. Or if cosmetic stuff (definitely reflecting maintenance budget cuts) was left but critical stuff was still properly addressed. You'd like to think that was the case.

However I'm a bit nervous if the Inspectorate really are going in hard over things that previously would have had a blind eye turned to them. These inspections aren't supposed to be a tool the state can use to take vengeance against a company that has taken some abysmal corporate decisions. We'd be moving into dangerous territory if that's the way things were going.

[khaines]

and that's why we've got a race to the bottom

Yes, but hopefully not literally!

It's all the 'lowest common denominator' effect really, just as BF is standardising on anodyne EFlexers in place of individualistic ships with character. 'Does the job' but not especially exciting. A bit of colour goes out of the world...

Be grateful for what you had as you won't be seeing it again.

I am going to do my broken record bit, but if BF had grabbed Nova Star while they had the chance and not chucked the Monopoly board up in the air over Honfleur, there could be two individual and very nice ferries complementing the fleet!

Yes, we’ve been there before and I know the situation with Nova Star, but I am pretty certain she could have had her uses, she’s doing perfectly well with Polferries, and if Honfleur does end up serving them as well, then that will be two Channel ships serving the Baltics that should be serving the Channel   Both those ships would have been much better received than the flexers are in some quarters.
 

[northy]

Just reflecting on this lowest common denominator idea -I think it’s spot on, but at least other companies that are engaged with this race to the bottom have many redeeming features as well in my view. Brittany Ferries, DFDS and Stena do seem genuinely interested in running properly efficient, comfortable and well invested in shipping companies. They have great and well maintained  fleets  and employ some lovely, motivated and highly experienced people. In the past I clung to the fact that P&O had some great staff… but now…they’ve sacked them. I was trying to think of a redeeming feature of P&O now and…I’m struggling. The only thing I can think of is that they are proposing to build two quite innovative ships for the channel. I don’t know if anyone else can think of any other redeeming features for P&O following this nonsense? 

[ryanh]

Unfortunately I can't think of any redeeming features as far as P&O ferries is concerned. They've been running things down deliberately for years; closing routes, downgrading, then closing the brasserie on the Calais ships (the one reason we did use them on that route), "flagging out" all of their UK registered ships, and now finally sacking all their British crews. I don't see how they can come back from this, in their current form. I would have thought that some kind of re-brand and/or sale of certain routes, if not the whole operation, must be on the cards sooner or later. 

[hhvferry]

I would have thought that some kind of re-brand and/or sale of certain routes, if not the whole operation, must be on the cards sooner or later. 

Yes I think that would most likely have to be the case. Partly because I suspect the owners may not be impressed with how the negative news is affecting their other projects (not that I think they care too much about their public reputation for its own sake).

So at some point you'd think DP would seek to cut their losses and dispose. But it's hardly a good time to try and sell right now and any buyer would need to be willing to soak up quite a lot of losses before they get back on an even keel - even if they retained the low cost crewing model.

[dojidave]

...that some kind of re-brand and/or sale of certain routes, if not the whole operation, must be on the cards sooner or later. 

The complete sh1t-show, and preferably sooner 😌

[SilverDot]

No I agree, some of the visible maintenance on P&O ships in the past decade has been appalling so one does wonder what it was like behind the scenes. Or if cosmetic stuff (definitely reflecting maintenance budget cuts) was left but critical stuff was still properly addressed. You'd like to think that was the case.

The MCA said the Pride of Kent failed its initial inspection on 29^th March “due to failures on vessel documentation, crew familiarisation and training, and emergency equipment not functioning properly, indicating a failure of the implementation of a safety management system,”.

Failing the reinspection on 13^th April the MCA said "(we) found a number of additional deficiencies including in safety systems and crew documentation" (what changed / did they miss the first time?)

And to fail for a third time, with the Spirit of Britain requiring two inspections and two other ships not fully inspected, the poor situation at Dover sounds endemic not just due to the re-crewing. It would seem a lot more questions than answers are coming out. If you were running P&O you would have made sure everything else was perfect before carrying out the crew swap to sail through the expected inspections.