antirisdeach.com | The online version of the fortnightly newsletter from the Isle of Tiree » transportation

RET And Hauliers

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:50:41 +0000

The Tiree Branch of the Scottish Crofting Federation have been in touch with Keith Brown, Transport Minister in the Scottish Government, with regard to the removal of RET on Commercial Vehicles on ferries. The plan is to replace RET with an amended system of the former “bulk discount rate” which had been in place prior to the introduction of the RET pilot three years ago.

While RET is now extended to vans five metres or less in length, the fact is that most commercial carriers use vans six metres and over in length as five metre vehicles are few and far between. Crofters fear that the Scottish Government is sacrificing the former commercial RET for the sake of introducing RET to other islands without putting any more money into the scheme. One crofter said it does`not bear thinking about what the cost of freight to the island will be if RET is not reintroduced to commercial vehicles.

The Scottish Government report “Assessment of the impacts of the road equivalent tariff” pointed out that RET has made a positive impact on haulage businesses by lowering costs. The reports states that hauliers recorded savings amounting to an estimated 50% of ferry costs, and that whilst all of these savings might not have been passed on to the customers directly it allowed hauliers to offset other increased costs and therefore enabled prices to be pegged where they would otherwise have increased. Despite this, the Scottish Government recently announced the exclusion of commercial vehicles from the newly-extended RET, announcing instead that they would ‘replace RET for larger commercial vehicles on the Western Isles, Coll & Tiree, with an enhanced pre-RET discount scheme’. There is widespread concern that islanders will lose out heavily as a result of these proposed changes. David Muir of the Scottish Crofting Federation said:

“the SCF are calling on the Scottish government to provide urgent clarity on the situation as we are concerned that a reintroduced discount system could take away a great deal of the support that RET has brought to smaller hauliers. Any resulting increase in ferry fare cost will be passed on to customers.”

. Mr Muir concluded that “to support the fragile island economies what is needed is a fair syatem that retains the cost savings for hauliers and other commercials gained in the RET scheme”.
MP Angus MacNeil has called for clarity quickly on the new proposed ferry fares for hauliers if the government continues with its current proposal to get rid of RET for lorries. He said “the decision to remove RET from the hauliers is a mistake. The removal of RET will ultimately lead to an increase in prices for customers in our islands. I will be pressing for a meeting with the trasnport minister early in the year. Meanwhile a campaign group, hauliers for RET, has been assembled to both work on the RET case and to dispel the myth that arose in Edinburgh that island hauliers did not want RET. If this is not sorted freight costs and prices will go up which could ultimately impact on jobs” David Wood, the spokesman for “Hauliers for RET” commented that
“RET has benefited the islands and to remove it from the haulage industry will be detrimental to the whole community. Ultimately our customer will have to pay.”
The Scottish Ferry Services Draft Plan for Consultation states in the short term we are replacing RET for larger commercial vehicles on the Western Isles, Coll and Tiree, with an enhanced pre- RET discount scheme because:-

The RET evaluation report shows that savings made by hauliers through RET have generally not been passed on to the consumers.
In 93 per cent of cases, the reduction in ferry fares arising through the RET Pilot have been wholly or partially absorbed at some stage in the supply chain, without being fully passed on to customers. Only 7 per cent of firms in the sample of businesses indicated that the savings had been passed on in full throughout the supply chain from both their suppliers and on to their customers.
The cost of rolling out RET to larger commercial vehicles is an estimated 40 per cent of the total cost of RET. ? Before the introduction of RET, hauliers received discounts to their fares up to a maximum of 15 per cent dependent on their volume of business with CalMac. Island hauliers told us when we rolled RET out that they were concerned mainland hauliers would be able to compete more effectively with them now that the same discounts applied to all hauliers. We will reinstate the pre-RET discounts that were enjoyed by hauliers and increase for the Western Isles, Coll and Tiree the maximum discount from 15 per cent to 25 per cent.
For the Western Isles, Coll and Tiree the Government is considering how to extend the current discount eligibility criteria for hauliers.
The Government is open to discussing with businesses which use larger commercial vehicles the most equitable formula which could be used to apply these discounts so that they benefit both larger and smaller companies.
These improvements to the discount will be made for the Western Isles, Coll and Tiree only, where hauliers have received the RET discount since October 2008. While the discount has not been passed on to consumers we accept that in these difficult financial times some hauliers may find it difficult to now pay a fully increased fare. The increase to the maximum discount reduces the impact on these hauliers. We will revisit the discount again when we renew the Clyde and Hebrides contract in October 2013.
We will look in the next CHFS tender to extend the current definition of a commercial vehicle from 5 metres to 6 metres. This will be consistent with the position in the Northern Isles

Will We Lose The Saab 340

admin — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 01:46:57 +0000

At a meeting on Monday 6th December the Tiree Airport Consultative Committee (TACC) members agreed to contact the Scottish Government’s Transportation Division following revelations and recent press comment that the Government, through their asset owning agency Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL), are planning the imminent purchase of two new Twin Otter aircraft from Canada for use on the Campbeltown, Barra and Tiree routes.

All three `lifeline’ routes are financially supported by the Scottish Government through a mechanism called `public service obligations’, or PSO’s for short. TACC members have learned that the Scottish Government Transportation Department Officials and Minister have already visited Barra to give assurances and to make promises to the public with regard to the future of the Glasgow to Barra air service.

While the Twin Otter has been an excellent aircraft for Tiree, and is apparently the only aircraft that can continue to serve Barra with the unusual beach take off and landing, members of the TACC felt that the needs of each island are quite different, as Tiree passenger numbers have steadily grown over recent years due to the introduction by Loganair/FlyBe on the Glasgow-Tiree route of the Saab 340. Resilience, and also the capacity to grow the Glasgow-Tiree service, should our route be served purely by the new Twin Otter aircraft, were two concerns expressed by TACC members.

Kenny Crawford, Head of Aviation Transport Scotland, has been invited to visit Tiree to discuss the island’s needs and to explain the Government’s proposals and vision for the future of Glasgow – Tiree PSO. He has agreed to come in the New year and has said that no decision on ordering aircraft will be made before 2012.

Any community group/s that have concerns regarding the Government proposals should make their views known to Ann Kirby at the Tiree Trust who will be coordinating a response to the Scottish Government’s Transportation Department.

Highland Airways

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:25:36 +0000

Highland Airways appears to have found someone to rescue it from its recent troubles.

The Inverness based firm, which employs about 100 people, had restricted bookings for flights while talks were held to secure new investment.

Flights for February have been restored and the firm has said discussions with a potential new partner are going well.

Flights in March and beyond will be available for booking soon. Let’s hope this is settled in the near future as the flights between Oban and Tiree are of great benefit to the Island.

Cal-Mac Chaos?

admin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:47:19 +0000

I’m sure that following the events of Friday 29th to Sunday 31st May there must have been a few raised eyebrows when I was quoted in the Oban Times as commending Calmac Route Manager Ian Fox for his efforts following the breakdown of the Clansman.

I must say that on Saturday morning at 6.30am in Craignure, with a cup final ticket in my pocket, I was far from happy to be told that the first sailings from either side had been cancelled; I mean a cup-final is pretty time-sensitive – after all, 56,000 people are hardly going to wait for me to get to Hampden.I had to do some serious rearranging, but I finally made it with two minutes to spare.

I arrived back in Mull on the Sunday and started to get stories about the various inconveniences visited upon travellers throughout Saturday and Sunday with many more cancellations, and it became apparent there would also be disruption to other islands which would filter through to me later. I therefore asked Ian Fox for a full detailed timeline and the rationale behind what had been done to secure services to the islands. The very next day Ian obliged with an email that ran to 4 pages and gave a full picture of the scale of the disruption and how decisions were arrived at to provide services to Tiree, Coll, Castlebay, and Mull.

It is obvious that Mr Fox and his Masters and their crews worked extremely hard to try and maintain services while what had seemed a routine repair originally expected to take 6 hours ran into two days. Some points were made in the Email which are worth passing on.

Replacement vessels are not easy to locate for these routes. Early on Saturday enquiries with regional manager at Islay about the availability of MV Isle of Arran showed this vessel fully booked for every sailing on Saturday up to 8.20 pm. It then sailed to Oban and performed an improbable overnight return journey to Lochboisdale. Required rest periods meant a further reshuffle and further disruption.

I am sure your readers do not need me to tell them about the delays on the Coll and Tiree services. What is clear is that there is much to be praised about the way the local staff and management performed, but there are nevertheless questions about how this situation can arise.

Why is it so difficult to get replacements if one vessel breaks down and why is the result so seemingly chaotic? In truth there are a variety of contributing factors, never forgetting that vessels DO break down and staff DO need to rest. Not all vessels can get into all piers. Even if there was another vessel in the fleet it would be running a regular route rather than lying idle waiting for a breakdown, so unless you have an entire crew and vessel to spare at any time (dream on!) there will always be a reshuffle and the attendant cancellations and delays- it’s just inherent in the system.

At Ferry Consultations over the Spring I have heard it said that Calmac’s fleet needs a capital investment of some £30m to start to address the ageing state of the fleet. Lead times on new build ships are several years. Even if three new ships were ordered now, they wouldn’t come into service till 2013 or later. None of this makes particularly happy reading but I am glad the Government is trying to establish a long-term ferry strategy to identify and work to resolve these types of problems before the system breaks down entirely.

I can be reached on 01688 302 689 or by email on gordon.chalmers@argyll-ukbute.gov.