BC FERRIES’ ONLINE UPGRADE OVERDUE
About time: Modernization may not solve all of corporation’s problems, but it’s a start
The company now pretty much concedes that its reservation system doesn’t make sense in terms of ferry operations.
When BC Ferries sought feedback this past year on its current website and online booking system, the reactions ranged from “bad” to “really bad.”
“I cannot believe how utterly pathetic your company is not to have an online reservation program that’s mobile phone friendly,” said one irate customer.
Another said he’d been complaining for six months about the difficulty of booking from his home computer and getting the same response: “It’s a known issue with Internet Explorer that our information technology team is trying to fix.”
“The worst website I have ever experienced,” said one who spoke collectively for the 85 per cent of respondents voicing a negative opinion about their online experience with BC Ferries.
More to the point was this: “As someone who has structured websites for a living, I wonder if you are in fact trying to dissuade people from making reservations?”
If so, BC Ferries has succeeded beyond all reasonable expectations. For as the company noted this week in a filing to the independent ferry commissioner, less than 2 per cent of annual revenues of $ 560 million comes from online bookings.
The goal of the 200- page submission was to secure approval for the estimated $ 10 million to $ 15 million capital expenditure to replace the company’s antiquated computer system — the first step in establishing a modern- day online website and booking system.
Then ferries would scrap the pay- up- front reservations and one- size- fits- all ticket pricing in favour of a more flexible system, patterned on that of airlines and European ferry services.
Innovations mentioned in the filing include discounts for travel booked in advance and on underutilized routes, encouraging bargain hunters to avoid peak times and last- minute travel. Options could range from premium pricing for business travellers — “a priority travel product that offers the convenience of assured loading and other value- added benefits” — to “super saver fares” that would be non- refundable and restricted to off- peak sailings.
Customers are expected to embrace the opportunity. The filing to the commissioner estimates that online bookings could eventually account for 70 per cent of the revenues on the major routes.
But BC Ferries itself would benefit by abandoning the perverse incentives of the current reservation system. For as one complainant wrote about the practice of requiring travellers to pay $ 15 to $ 22 to reserve vehicle space in advance:
“When we reserve, you know how many vehicles and passengers to expect and can manage your sailings and crew more effectively. Yet the folks who chose to reserve are penalized.”
Having long rejected the logic of that argument, the company now pretty much concedes that its reservation system doesn’t make sense in terms of ferry operations.
“The majority of customers do not reserve, but purchase their tickets on departure,” says the submission. “During busier periods, on some routes, BC Ferries runs additional round trips to accommodate higher demand. Many of these round trips are at the discretion of operations managers in reaction to the buildup of traffic at a terminal. Because of these circumstances, BC Ferries has ships and crews on standby, with associated incremental costs. This is an inefficient approach that only serves to reduce duration of sailing waits, rather than to prevent them.”
By encouraging travellers to book ahead of time and away from the busiest sailings, the company expects to save money on operations, delivering a cumulative payback of up to $ 30 million over a dozen years. The submission reckons the reduced cost pressures might amount to the equivalent of one foregone fare increase of 2 per cent.
The discounts could also increase travel on the underutilized routes, perhaps leading to a three- to five- per- cent increase in overall traffic. If that happens — and count me as a skeptic — traffic would still be below 2008 levels, according to the submission.
Modernization of the booking system won’t solve the overarching financial squeeze on the ferries brought on by everhigher operating costs and a flattening of the still- substantial subsidy from the provincial government.
But the changeover is of a piece with other moves of late, including the decision to phase in liquefied natural gas as a fuel and the announcement of a $ 200,000 study on replacing the Gabriola Island run with a bridge.
If the commissioner approves the capital plan for the new online booking system — and I expect he will — it would be phased in over the next 2 ½ years, culminating in the summer of 2017.
Ferries attributes the long lead time to the wish to provide ample leeway for developing and installing the new system, while minimizing disruption from phasing out the old.
There’s also the challenge of “customer acceptance,” particularly from folks like me who are resistant to technological change more complicated than replacing a light bulb.
Denouncing the plan for the new booking system this week was Opposition critic for ferries Claire Trevena. “People need consistency and this will just create confusion,” said Trevena, who tends to take the words “opposition” and “critic” literally in everything she says.
But Luddites aside, when the changeover is finally completed, I expect the reaction from most ferry customers will be “welcome to the world of ecommerce — what kept you?”