What's that smell?

On the 8: 00 am sailing from Waiheke - 8:15 am Fuller’s release septic waste off Quickcat into Rangitoto Channel off Islington Bay.

And while we're at it...

Again this week a major Fullers ferry has been taken out of service for some unknown reason: passengers don't need to know why or how long, we just need to keep stumping up, keep our mouths shut and be grateful there is a ferry service at all, what with Infratil being kept busy with chasing Auckland Airport directorships.

So we now have endure rides on that crowd favourite, the Vomit Comet, sorry, Jet Raider. Not that it would matter much if only they could get rid of the diesel fumes above and the toilet stink below the waterline. But the constant lateness of the damn thing is what riles most passengers.
Fullers has been posting notices around patronizingly warning passengers that their ferry won't wait for them at departure. Unfortunately there is no same guarantee offered it will ever arrive on scheduled time and the Jet Raider is always 15 to 25 minutes late.
In the UK, public transport operators get fined or their licence withdrawn if their services are habitually late. Why can't we have a similar system here? It would certainly them where it hurts and make haste of regular maintenance and upgrades.

Air passengers: 1 - ferry passengers: nil

News from a public transport system that works:

"Qantas intended spending $10 million on introducing its Cityflyer brand, which now operates between the six main Australian centres, to New Zealand. That would include:
* A $3 million upgrade of domestic club lounges in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
* Refurbishing aircraft cabins.
* Self-serve check-in kiosks at airports.
* An enhanced free food service and morning newspapers.
* A free bar service from 4pm on weekdays."

While I read that, sitting on a wind and rain-swept Auckland ferry Pier 2, I can't but marvel with envy at how the free airline market caters for its passengers. Imagine what ferry travel would be like if there were Qantas ferries competing with Infratil for customers. We'd be pampered with Koru club style waiting facilities instead of wino hangouts; have refurbished ferries that don't stink of diesel and freshly pumped out sewage; ferries that might actually arrive on time instead of patronizing warnings that ferries will not wait for you; and all for prices that can go down instead of always up.
(I'm only using the ferry as an analogy, the same is of course true for bus and train services)

Come on, Qantas/Pacific Blue/AirNZ, branch out into our transport mode and give a heave to bad and expensive service.

Why is the ARTA negligent in its job for it guarantees the present monopoly gouging to continue? And how do we get rid of it?

My point is that the lack of competition is the direct cause of bad and overpriced service on ferries. 1,000 commuting passengers a day is a large market - how many plane routes or bus lines carry that many people twice a day in New Zealand?
Virgin runs planes and trains in the UK, so multiple transport modes can be run by one company (Infratil runs buses, ferries and airports!) - hell, they could even offer "frequent flyer points" applicable to all their transport modes.

Booking seats on ferries in advance would be quite handy and those advance sales are attractive for traveler and company alike, as it does for planes and the Naked Bus Co. It would force Fullers to actually deliver a reliable and attractive service instead of the guaranteed monopoly they enjoy now.
Imagine if you could book your daily commute bus seat: no more standing room only and the driver knows where to pick up his booked passengers. Guaranteed filled seats and regular income - perhaps even without a public subsidy. Everybody would be better off with some lateral thinking and free market innovation.

There would be nothing wrong with cut price peak services and extra charges for extra services like a Koru Club or free drinks. It would offer passengers choice. Now the only choice we have is a stinking Jet Raider at first class fares.

Stranded on an island again?

Another party weekend is upon us on Waiheke and Fullers have been putting up posters on the ferry "advising" party goers to return on the 8.15pm and 10.15pm ferries. The only proper response is a Tui ad.
But it shouldn't be rocket science, really. Why not run an all-night boat, say, every two hours, so party goers can relax and enjoy themselves in the knowledge they can get back home at some stage? Basic good customer service and what a ferry service should be there for, I would have thought.
Let's hope the Red Cross is ready this time with blankets and hot drinks for the stranded.

Stranded on an island (update 2)

The plot thickens (via TV3):

"It has emerged the skipper of a ferry that last weekend left over a hundred passengers stranded on Waiheke Island, had refused to return for them.
The passengers couldn't all fit onto Fullers' last sailing.
The company says it's looking into why the skipper ignored a manager's request for him to make another trip.
And he says Fullers is making sure visitors to the Island's annual food and wine festival today are well catered for."

The gossip I heard on the ferry home last night was that some of the crew on the last vessel that night refused to return to Waiheke to pick up the rest of the passengers because in a previous instance last year they were not paid by Fullers for the overtime they put in then. So, if true (if Fullers management reads this, please feel free to clarify the issue), the complete fault lies with Fullers management, and not with the crew in question. Nobody is obliged to work for free, surely.
And now instead of fixing Fullers problems, such as running all night boats during summer weekends when a lot is happening on Waiheke, Fullers' owner Infratil resorts to a more effective weapon against its customers: blackmail:

"Listed infrastructure investor Infratil could exit its $250 million bus and ferry services if radical transport proposals are pursued by local government.
Infratil director Tim Brown said the proposals would ultimately see the country's bus and ferry networks run by bureaucrats who would collect the fares and pay private operators a fee to provide the service.
They would also have the right to buy the business if it did not meet local authority targets."

Stranded on an island

It's not often Waiheke Island makes the front page of the largest newspaper in New Zealand two days in a row. The last time was when the foot & mouth hoax hit.
But this weekend it was all fun and games, what with several - newspaper reports say 120, my fellow ferry commuters this morning said there were only about 20 - Fullers ferry ticket holders left stranded on the island side after a good night out at various functions, parties and weddings. The ferry company neglected to provide sufficient capacity to take back all passengers, to whom they happily sold tickets earlier in the day. Worse, Fullers didn't even send over another boat to pick up the castaways, as they were wont to do in earlier (more customer-friendly) times. Nope, they raked in their ticket cash and the ferry management said:

"When most of the people choose to come back on the last sailing it makes it a little difficult."

Well, bugger me, Fullers, I know you like that, but isn't providing passenger services what you are actually in business for?
Now a few people face charges for "breaking into" the wharf building, because they were cold and hungry during their 8 hour wait overnight. Well, duh! Our famous island hospitality has been severely dented by this incident. At least the wharf building should have provided shelter - isn't that what it was built for? Every ticket sold by the ferry company includes a "wharf tax" so technically speaking they didn't break in but gained access to what they had paid for.
On the second day after the incident, Auckland Regional Council leader Mike Lee waded into the issue calling the ferry company excuses "nonsense". Pity the ARC has little power over Fullers because they run the Waiheke service as a pure monopoly without local body subsidies, which means they are un-beholden to any conditions on service and quality delivery, timetabling and fare structures. A pure capitalist text book case of bugger the customer for all he's worth.
Despite all this fun and nonsense, there is really a serious issue involved. Our island is basically dependent on its 1,000 daily commuters and the hordes of tourists who visit irregularly. All have to use Fullers Ferries who happily gouge whatever dollars they can get out of us and you (you can come on another ferry service from a suburban part of town but this is impractical). And if this suddenly becomes uneconomic our whole island economy will be far more affected than any foot and mouth disease can throw at us.

Stranded on an island (update 1)

The Herald ran an editorial on the issue:

"This is not the normal culture of a business that runs a public service; it is not even the culture of state-owned service providers these days. Fullers' behaviour last Saturday night was a throw-back to the days when so-called public servants would close the counter on a queue of customers if the clock struck closing time."

Indeed, and even writing letters to Fullers results in patronising and nonsensical replies, but which you're not allowed to make public!

Fullers woes

With fuel prices locally at almost year lows due to a combination of lower world market prices and a higher New Zealand dollar against the greenback, private car users have been reaping the benefit of lower prices at the pump. $1.47 a litre is well down from $1.76 only weeks or months ago. So everybody has been climbing into their cars again, since public transport companies have been steadfastly refusing to lower their fares, as you would expect since they earlier raised prices due to fuel cost increases.
I wrote to that effect to the local island newspaper, which published my letter as the leading entry on the letters page - thank you very much, Simon - and sent a copy to Fullers Ferries for a reaction:

Sir,
Now that the diesel price is back where it was 12 months ago, can we expect a commensurate drop in the ferry fare prices in time for October (hiked because of fuel price increases, according to your literature at the time)?
Regards,

It took Acting Operations Manager Michael Fitchett six days to reply. And unfortunately I can't tell you what he wrote back, due to Fullers communications policy "to freely respond to questions in a confidential manner with customers".
That's a pity. But in short the reply was that the diesel price reduction has not been that dramatic it would impact on fares and they didn't know where it would go in the future (and hence, I presume, it's better to hedge your bets on your side of the balance sheet than on the side of your customer).
So in all, public transport prices only go up. They will only go down if faced with competition and that is, helas, not on the horizon for our island service.

The public transport gods have been particularly cruel this last week. Five of Fullers vessels are currently out of service for various reasons, including annual service and general engine failures, resulting in chaotic timetabling, lateness in arrivals and departures, and plenty of irate passengers who were denied boarding on several occasions as far too small vessels have to do commuter runs they were not designed for.
Even the "Ferry Users Group", memorably described by one of my fellow commuters as a floating Rotary Club, not normally known for militant or even slightly disrespectful criticism, pointed to a less than satisfactory maintenance regime at Fullers. Abject abuse of monopoly while running your resource into the ground is what I would call it.

I can't feel sorry for Fullers since I'm still expected to pay a first class fare for a cattle class service - and guess who will be paying for all the repairs and necessary future fleet upgrades?

UPDATE 26 October: The Waiheke Gulf News reports Fullers will give us a $50 discount on November's monthly passes (normal price $300) for putting up with the inconvenience. Pity that can't be made permanent since the diesel price has come down by that amount.

Economic cleansing of Waiheke

The island natives have become restive this year, what with the property revaluations and ferry fares increases.
On Sunday a group of pensioners organised a public meeting on the local rates issue. Our feudal overlord, Auckland City Council, is quite happy with extracting extra pounds of flesh from islanders, because the islanders have been frugal and industrious in doing up their hovels and have made the island so attractive that newcomers have been pushing up island property prices at a rate twice the average of the city.
The city sees this as a valid and legal excuse to tax islanders for a much higher amount because:
- we're all rich islanders, coastal property owners and multi-million dollar vineyard businesses who should be made to subsidise the lifestyle of mainland city dwellers;
- it wants to finance its commercial activities on the island (such as car parking fees) from rates money because the income from car parking charges doesn't cover costs. (This is due to a parking boycott by islanders who rightly resent being made to pay twice for what was previously free.)
- the mayor claims that for every $1 extracted from Waiheke, the Council spends $3 on the island.

The mayor says he's sympathetic with our plight, especially the elderly on fixed incomes who have been living on the island for generations and are now caught up in the property boom, causing their bach value to go from $10,000 to several hundreds of thousands, without even installing a walk-in shower.
But this sympathy is, of course, baloney.

The city is reluctant to give an exact breakdown of those cross-subsidy figures because they are all smoke and mirrors, as befits a local territorial authority exempt from any transparancy or accountability obligations.
What exactly does the city give islanders to warrant a rates bill of over $1,500 a year?
We get: free gas barbecues on the beach (also free for off-islanders); a library service (which is actually very good); street lighting (sparse because the locals like dark streets); foot path and road construction (at such glacial pace that they never keep up with newly emerging potholes).
All other Council services are "user pays", e.g. "commercial" (planning permission for anything you want to do on your property, rubbish collection over 52 bags per year, ferry car parking, ferry wharf use). The costs of these Council services are recovered, so, in theory, no rates money should be reserved for capital investment and the running of the Council's commercial activities - which means Matiatia's recent $12 million purchase should not be included in the "subsidy" the Council gives the island.
Not a squeak yet from our sole representative on the Council, Faye Storer. I guess she's too busy furthering her career on the mainland in other areas of Council policy, or travelling overseas to be much bothered - well, I guess it must be difficult to resist the greedy eyes of the other Councillors if you're in a minority of one.

The other attack on island life is from a private monopoly, the Fullers ferry service.
It raised its fares by about 15 to 20 percent this month, after a 10 percent rise last September. As the monopoly transport provider by default and unencumbred by public accountability (it refuses to accept subsidies because they would cramp its ability to provide a service they see fit rather than what passengers would like) it raises prices and lowers levels of service at will.
In its pamphlet to passengers, distributed a day before the price hikes, outlining their reasons it mentions diesel price increases and flat passenger demand over the past three years. This causes hollow laughter in anyone who has visited Waiheke over the recent holiday period and had to suffer overloaded boats and even being denied boarding on certain days.

No, the real reasons are:
- we charge more, because we can;
- we provide a cattle class service at first class prices, because we can;
- we set all conditions and levels of service at the lowest setting possible, because we can.
You can't fault a monopoly to gouge its customers, that's the name of the game, so good on them for having us on - any other company in the same position would do the same thing. But does it need to involve that amount of hypocrisy? Why not tell us to our face?
One of the main culprits in this deplorable situation is the Auckland Regional Transport Authority, which prides itself to be the policy setter for public transport in Auckland. It has consistently refused to intervene or play its proper role of ensuring a commercial level playing field to foster competition.

It all calls into question why Waiheke Island should remain a part of Auckland City or the Auckland region. Time for independence, methinks.

North Shore Busway includes free parking

Last Sunday the new busway opened from the North Shore to Auckland City. Included are 700 FREE car parks for public transport commuters. No doubt the car parks are surrounded by hi-tech surveillance so any theft or damage to cars will be recorded and, hopefully, prevented. It's the only way people will leave their cars all day parked, secure in the knowledge they will be able to use them at the end of the day. This principle of secure parking is also prevalent in all car parking in town, even if you have to pay for it.
Compare this to the situation at Matiatia: what do you actually get for your $6 a day? Will the Council, as landlord, be held responsible for any damage to, petrol siphoning from or theft of your car? If not, why not? Does the $6 not go to insurance against damage claims? Why are North Shore commuters more deserving than Waiheke ones in this respect? Is it because they have us by the short-and-curlies by forcing us to park there as we have no alternative in driving into town like the Shorians have?

My issue isn't so much with parking that has to be paid for by the users or by the whole community (in case free parking is offered) but one of fairness:
1. The half of the Matiatia car park, which used to be free, has always been in Council ownership. So the new charges are actually used to finance the purchase of a block of land that is only partly used (and was already charged for) as carparking.
2. The reason why free parking is offered on the mainland is because people will add the price of parking there to actually driving to town and not having the bother of worrying about safety or bus and train timetables. Since islanders are a captive audience, and perceived as rich, they are expected to pay whatever monopoly price is charged by either the council for parking, Fullers for the ferry service and the ARC for usage of the wharves.

I'm all for bribing people out of their cars and into public transport by subsidies and freebies, to lessen the road congestion. But they should be evenly and equitably spread out.
At the moment Auckland expects Waiheke Islanders to pay for everything: no subsidies for our ferry service; market price for ferry car parking; a wharf tax that covers the cost of maintaining the whole wharf system on the Waitemata and payment of ARC rates that subsidises Auckland public transport we have only marginal access to (BTW why is it that a Link bus trip costs one third of the fare charged by the Waiheke Bus Company for the same distance travelled?).
So, in all, I think you mainlanders get a great deal out of us, so please give us a break.
Here's a deal: we let you pay the wharf charges in return for the island free ownership of the Matiatia land. A win-win situation for everybody!