Another victim of Covid?

[Workingman]

I did specify "short" routes, less than a couple of hours - Dover to Calais / Dunkerque. "Tourist" travellers can be deep into France / Belgium / Luxembourg before the longer routes dock. They can have the van parked or the tent up and be having a few cold drinks well before Tristram, Arabella and the sprogs are leaving Dieppe or the Hook.

Like it or not, P&O are still going to get the short route tourists.

I suppose a bridge would do away with the need for dinghies. It is technically possible but a safety nightmare over the world's busiest seaway carrying the largest of ships: expensive too.

[Suff]

I suppose it depends on your wants. If you can get a sleep on the ferry then carry on travelling, you skip a night of hotels if you are going further on. Not everyone lives in the south east, although it does host more people than Scotland.

Bridge is something they will eventually want to look at. The tunnel has been invaluable for trade but of limited use for tourists due to constantly high costs.

We shall see how it evolves but I strongly doubt it will create lower prices.

[Workingman]

Book any Dover ferry from Easter to Autumn mid-term and the vast majority of vehicles, apart from lorries and WVM, are mobile tourists (mum, dad and kids) wanting an escape. They don't want a cabin and a kip, they want off >>>. Le Havre, St Malo and Dieppe, Zeebrugge and the Hook are of no interest to them.

DFDS boats are chock full at those times, so P&O it will be. The tourists, some of them, will hold their noses and hand over the cash, others will just stump up and to hell with it.

I do not like it, but reality will kick in.

[Suff]

I can hope, but it is my fear too.

[saundra]

I see in the DM new foreign crews are being paid under £2-00 per hour
And dispite all the hassle yes travellers will book them
For convience

[Workingman]

And dispite all the hassle yes travellers will book them
For convience

This it true, but those travellers should realise that passenger safety is the responsibility of all crew members, from waitresses in the café up to the captain. They all need to know the ship and their roles inside out; what equipment they have, what stations to be at and the procedures to follow. They have to be integrated.

That takes time, a lot of time and a lot of training. These new crews will be nowhere near to that for many months. Holiday makers should be aware of that. I wouldn't use one for a year or so.

The unions are highlighting this and claim that these cheap seafarers are not fit for purpose and that the ships are not fit to sail.

[Suff]

Hence the call from the Unions to remove their operating license until this is addressed.

There is some precedent to this. The operating license was based on the record of training and skills/qualifications of the staff on the ships. Take away all the staff and the base for the operating license is eroded.

That being said, the Dubai wealth fund bought the company back in 2019 and lost 100m in 2 years due to Covid. I expect that they had discussions with the Unions about costs and the Union position was "Inflation is going up, how much More are you going to pay our staff". This is a bit more than surmise, when inflation is going up the last thing the Unions talk about is cutting costs and wages.

I understand, from a friend who crosses regularly, that the vessels on the Dover run were re-flagged to Cyprus after the last purchase. The ships home port changed from Dover to Limassol. This means that those crews have been spending their working time in an EU country, not the UK, unless they were working onshore. Given that it was only the crew staff who were sacked, not the onshore staff, this tends to point that way. I expect that has a LOT to do with the way the workers have been dealt with and why the Government is not acting to overturn this decisions. My assumption is that the entire fleet of vessels were re-flagged in 2019.

Nothing has been said about it but then the news often reports the position they want us to understand and, often, little salient details get in the way.

[Workingman]

Oh look, another Brexit bonus for British workers.

A "patriotic" British company, C1820, re-flagged to an EU country, which gives its EU workers protection from such measures. UK - a third country - anything goes, little or no protection.

Taking back control?

If those ferries were Spain to the Balearics, France to Corsica or Italy to Sardinia or Sicily the rules and protections would be different.

[Suff]

The rules still apply. But they are Cypriot rules.

You think the EU has a single set of employment rules? Dream on, we didn't.

[Workingman]

If those ferries were from Spain to the Balearics, France to Corsica or Italy to Sardinia or Sicily the rules would be different from the UKs?

Cheap foreign crews? Get real.