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Irish ferries compete with P&O on one route (dover-calais) and even that has only been with 1 boat for the last 6 months (recently added another). It's old news that changing staff won't save £100m / year so they need to come up with something better.
OR
The government accepts it can’t enforce anything (vessels flagged in the EU / Bermuda, crew are international,
Interesting that you have such a defeatist attitude cheddar. The government claims it can do something about the current (and universally condemned) situation.
Legislation is now expected to before parliament either tomorrow or the day after. So not long to wait to find out whether this is true.
You seem to think that DP World won't be able to operate UK ferries operations as a viable business if they aren't allowed to operate as however they wish.
It would appear that perhaps the government shares your views in that respect and it maybe explains this :
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/po-ferries-rivals-meet-government-23516463
Btw since appear to dislike government involvement in "complex operations" such as ferry services it is probably worth pointing out that Irish Ferries, and the race to the bottom which they appear to be encouraging, is the result of Irish government privitization.
The government claims it can do something about the current (and universally condemned) situation.
Ha.Haha.hahahahhaha.
Have just got off the phone with P&O. They’ve cancelled all pride of hull crossings until the 11th April, so our nice gentle pootle across the sea next Friday is turning into a marathon drive to Folkestone. Joy.
Hot_fiat is that definite? We are currently on the pride of Rotterdam (just passing immingham...) and booked to come back on the pride of hull on the 9th. When we checked in they gave us the return portion of the ticket with no comment.
Yeah I was on the phone to the call centre checking my booking when the person at the other end received the email. They offered me full cancellation, moving a day either side or free rebooking with DFDS. In the end none of that really suited us so they refunded 50% of the ticket meaning we travel home with them on PoR. Outbound I’ve used the refund to book us with DFDS to Dunquerque.
I think we will probably move to the day after if given the choice (makes us a bit late back for work on the Monday but our jobs are flexible enough to be able to do it if we can get home for mid morning) and we could head to Maastricht to see the start of Amstel Gold on the Sunday before heading back. But we'll see. Just arriving in Rotterdam now, then heading down to Flanders.
We've got a text about it now, looks like an extra nights holiday for us...
The government claims it can do something about the current (and universally condemned) situation.
The only suggestion I've seen publicised so far appears to be giving UK ports the ability to refuse ships whose crews aren't UK minimum wage. In what fever dream did our glorious leaders think ports would want to even ask that question of their customers, let along attempt to police their employment policies?
So, if that's the best idea, basically they have no ideas.
I see they're now saying pride of hull cancelled until at least April 22
You know what? I reckon they might fold. That’s a hell of a long time to have an asset like that out of use. All the channel ferries are still laid up, as well as the north channel ships. That leaves PoR and Norbank as their only operating ships out of a fleet of 11. The Easter rush is looming and I’m not sure they’ll get the Dover / Calais route re-opened in time. Cr@p.
I wouldn't be surprised at this rate.
Our update - we couldn't get through yesterday (we're on holiday and didn't want to spend all day on hold!). When we got through today the best they could do was a ferry 3 days later than we booked. As we have jobs to get back for we ended up cancelling and booking on dfds to Newcastle. Less convenient but at least we have confidence it will sail.
Well, the insolvency service is wading in now, so lookout!
P&O management must be banking on the fact that everyone else thinks like a robot.
The European crews not suffering the same fate is just laughable.
Never assume big business knows best!
Never assume big business knows best!
I expect they were hoping to slip it out unnoticed with everything else going on and any minor complaints would be happily ignored by the tories.
@hjghg5 check your refund carefully. P&O just called me to ask what I wanted to do with my booking for this Friday. They seemingly had no record of the fact I’d called on Wednesday and asked for it to be cancelled, but did have a new additional booking for me on the 20th.
I wouldn't be surprised. When our 2020 ferry was cancelled (for the trip we're currently on) we were meant to have a credit. We only found out they'd randomly rebooked us on a different ferry when they emailed to say it was cancelled. We did at least then get a refund rather than another credit.
On the British workers, and British flagged ships topic.
If the Government bring in some legislation saying that the ferries operating out of our ports are flagged in the UK (Entered into the UK Register of Shipping) and then also legislates that they have to have British crew, or at least crewed by people who are entitled to work in the UK, it opens a massive can of worms.
Many many ships trading internationally are UK registered, and have not a single UK national working on them. They may take on some UK cadets, as part of a tax incentive.
They will find it very hard to create a statuatory instrument that allows these Non-ferries vessels to be UK registered, and maintain their non-UK crew members, while insisting on UK crew for the ferries. The ferries are simply passenger vessels that are engaging in international voyages, like many other ships flying the Red Ensign. There'll be many a loophole.
https://www.cityam.com/po-to-face-soaring-insurance-bill-after-sinking-to-riskiest-safety-rating/
That's a shame.
Quite funny they just sacked 7 agency workers for going on the beer in port aswell. What were they expecting?!
On the British workers, and British flagged ships topic.
If the Government bring in some legislation saying that the ferries operating out of our ports are flagged in the UK (Entered into the UK Register of Shipping) and then also legislates that they have to have British crew, or at least crewed by people who are entitled to work in the UK, it opens a massive can of worms.
Many many ships trading internationally are UK registered, and have not a single UK national working on them. They may take on some UK cadets, as part of a tax incentive.
They will find it very hard to create a statuatory instrument that allows these Non-ferries vessels to be UK registered, and maintain their non-UK crew members, while insisting on UK crew for the ferries. The ferries are simply passenger vessels that are engaging in international voyages, like many other ships flying the Red Ensign. There’ll be many a loophole.
I know it was 2 weeks ago but that's exactly the point I was making, can of worms indeed.
Quite funny they just sacked 7 agency workers for going on the beer in port aswell. What were they expecting?!
Not sure what your point is? The agency staff should know full well the drug and alcohol policy, if they choose to ignore it that's on their heads. Or are you implying there's a minimum wage below which people have no obligation to care about their employment?
It's just classic behaviour from sweaty sailors who have been locked onboard for weeks to get drunk in the first port they come to.
BBC: P&O forced to reverse attempt at pay cut.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61209894
They really are a scum outfit. Shocking behaviour towards both the new contractors and the union reps.
I’m entirely unsurprised they’ve screwed up our refund which is about £300 less than it should have been.
It’s just classic behaviour from sweaty sailors who have been locked onboard for weeks to get drunk in the first port they come to.
As an ex-sweaty sailor who did exactly this - no it's not if your terms and conditions prohibit it. Singapore > Basrah Terminal > Long Beach = 1 Sam Adams as I had to report for watch after my 6 hours ashore.
ITV News: Union wants government to strip P&O of licence after ferry breaks down at sea.
https://www.itv.com/news/2022-04-26/union-wants-government-to-strip-p-and-o-of-licence-after-ferry-breaks-down-at-sea
P&O Ferries’ ship, the European Causeway, has four main engines, two generators and at least one backup generators.
All of them appear to have suddenly failed, in calm weather, leaving the ship drifting in the Irish Sea.
............................
The MCA also noted that the ship’s “propulsion and auxiliary machinery” was “not properly maintained”.
Bumping this with a polite reminder that one year on absolutely **** all happened to P&O and it’s leadership as a result of their self-proclaimed illegal actions. I recognise that the government got a little distracted in the meantime but I imagine this was inevitable given the ethics and integrity of the people in charge. Remember to keep them on your shit list ferry riders.
Yep, sod all done. My mate was chief navigation officer (despite having passed his captains exams) on the P&O at Stranraer and was frog marched off the ship by hired goons either side of him, absolute shower of ****s. He ****ed off to Greece to work for pocket money on the commission of a new medical mercy ship built in china, they had to completely strip out/redo the operating theatre’s and stainless piping as the Chinese quality was piss poor. Despite 30 yrs at sea on tankers/lpg/cargo/container ships he can no longer get a job so has just started with Border Force, he’s sick as a pig with what’s he’s experienced so far and the mentality of those he’s working with.
Mick Lynch, unsurprisingly, gets it spot bollock correct :
"Under this Tory government, the interests of a handful of big business oligarchs are shielded and privileged, while Britain slides into authoritarian extremism, its treatment of workers at home and those seeking refuge from abroad plumbing new and frightening depths".
FWIW, P&O was £1 cheaper than Irish Ferries on a forthcoming channel crossing...so I went with Irish because of P&O's generally awful behaviour.
I was happy that my principles could be upheld at such a small cost...