It鈥檚 about time sa国际传媒 Ferries moved into the 21st century. The corporation plans to do a complete overhaul of its online system, including allowing travellers to make reservations without paying an extra fee and offering discounts for off-peak travel.
That is where sa国际传媒 Ferries should be going, but how it goes there will make all the difference.
While this is a major change of direction for the ferry corporation, it鈥檚 not new or radical in the world of travel. Airlines sell 98 per cent of their tickets online.
Only two per cent of sa国际传媒 Ferries鈥� revenue comes from online reservations, but CEO Mike Corrigan says the corporation would like to see that figure climb to 70 per cent.
Such a system would help more closely match traffic and capacity, reducing the number of vessels travelling empty and cutting down on the necessity of keeping crews on standby for extra sailings when demand grows. That would help reduce costs, but Corrigan would not go so far as to say it would reduce fares. Rather, the changes could 鈥渉elp keep fares lower than they otherwise would be.鈥�
The corporation鈥檚 brief to the ferry commissioner worries that 鈥渃ustomers may not embrace the new advance-purchase model as anticipated, resulting in lower traffic.鈥�
Resistance to change is always a challenge, but it shouldn鈥檛 be a major one in this case. No one these days shows up at the airport without a ticket and realistically expects to get on a plane. Travellers should quickly become accustomed to the same arrangement at the ferry terminal.
The current system is backward. Ferry passengers pay a penalty for having the foresight to reserve a place on the ferry 鈥� they pay up to $22 as a non-refundable reservation fee. Washington-bound ferries charge a reservation fee, but it is applied to the price of the ticket.
Corrigan says sa国际传媒 Ferries intends to correct that, requiring 鈥渟how and go鈥� passengers to pay the extra fee, rather than those who make reservations.
Perhaps that is unfair. Ferries are not airplanes. People generally plan days, weeks or months ahead for travel that involves flying. Not so with a jaunt to Saltspring Island or the mainland. People see the ferries as part of the highway system, always there, always available.
So change will require some education and much input.
And limiting public input to the month of December seems unwise when people are occupied with so many other things. Extending the comment period to the end of January would give people time to contemplate ramifications of the proposed changes and offer their views.
Given that the corporation is operating its website with 25-year-old technology, updating the system is long overdue. But care should be taken in that area 鈥� the corporation should resist the temptation of custom software. It should be quite feasible to adapt systems already in use by airlines and other ferry services, rather than risking bugs and breakdowns with a proprietary system.
Reinventing the digital wheel has resulted in some very expensive wheels in this province. sa国际传媒 Ferries should not be in a hurry to uphold that dubious tradition.
The New Democrat Opposition has criticized the ferry corporation鈥檚 plans, saying solutions are needed now, not in 2017, which is when the changes are expected to be in place. Improving service should be an ongoing effort, but the proposed changes are a major shift 鈥� they shouldn鈥檛 be rushed. Costly stumbles tend to occur when a project is made to run too fast.
sa国际传媒 Ferries is the constant target of complaints and criticism, but it operates a good service. Done right, the proposed changes should make that service better.
