Cross Solent operator, Red Funnel, has announced cancellations affecting passengers on its vehicle ferry service this evening (Sunday).
Those travelling on the East Cowes to Southampton route are set to face disruption due to the withdrawal of the 19:30 departure from Southampton and the 21:00 departure from East Cowes.
Red Funnel says the cancellations are as a result of a ‘critical crew member becoming unavailable at short notice’.
So no trained up standby staff then …shows there management isn’t up to much and they should be able to cover any situation that is a inconvenience to travellers…..
Surely relying on 1 crew member to maintain a reliable, trustworthy, continuous service, is, in my opinion, bad business practice. Is there not another Red Funnel crew member that could be fully trained to cover absence. Or they referring to the Captain? Even so, every crew member should have a colleague that could step up when the situation requires. Awlful for people booked on the cancelled sailings. I would not be very happy with this service, or lack of it.
Where’s their back up plan ,no other business would run like these do , disgusting service
What is the job of this critical member of staff?
it will be the onboard safety crew – without a set number of crew the ship cannot sail under its licence conditions. As overtime is voluntary, the company need to ring round and ask another qualified member of staff to give up their day off to work – if they say no, then the ship doesn’t sail – simple as that.
no point banging on about standby crews, as you need to employ more staff to do this, as those off duty, are required to have minimum hours between shifts off. The company would have staff sat around, being paid and not working – just in case.
The other option is of course that they train shore staff to be crew also -that costs money.
Tea boy?
Bog cleaner or Covid patrol?
Roger the cabin boy!
There awt to be 2 more ferry companies doing the crossing , take the monopolies away from the 2 that have it tied up in a bag communicating together naming their prices etc