BC Ferries needs a Green Plan

Everybody is going green these days, except BC Ferries. What's wrong with them? Don't they see the opportunities here?

I'll help them with a few money-making examples for a greener BC Ferries :

1. Lower the walk-on fee. Lower? Yes, lower. Cars don't eat food, they don't buy magazines, and don't play in the Arcade hall. People do. Focus on transporting people, not metal. People are still considered green (when in fact most of them aren't), but cars are not. When people have to spend less on a ticket, they're also more likely to spend a few more bucks during the ride.

2. Lobby for improvement of BC Transit. I find it still hard to believe that in the year 2007 there still isn't a BC Transit Express service from downtown Victoria to downtown Vancouver. What's taking so long? Many people bemoan the high rates for taking your car onto these ferries, still the only comfortable way to get to Vancouver (from Victoria). A return ticket for one car and two passengers is close to $120 dollars. Lobby to come up with a walk-on return pass under $40 per person. This would make walk-on travel convenient and affordable, resulting in more travellers. Lobbying doesn't cost money, only effort. Go!

When the above is implemented, these changes can lead to the next move:

3. Introduce smaller, walk-on-passenger-only ferries. These ferries should be able to operate for a lot less money, and could improve the service. Since they can be a lot smaller, they probably can go a bit faster too.

BC Ferries, Go Green!

David Hahn's Bad Handling of BC Ferries Tragedy

Why did David Hahn announce at first that "the rescue of ferry passengers was miraculous"? Maybe even more important, why is it that Canada.com is putting these types of errors in the top of their story, without checking the facts? And it's still on the net too.

Read the erroneous story (full of BC Ferries spin) here:
Canada.com : Rescue of Ferry passengers miraculous, says head of BC Ferries

Just a sample from the top of the story:

The orderly rescue of dozens of people from a sinking ferry in the dead of night early Wednesday off B.C.'s north coast was nothing short of miraculous, the president of B.C. Ferries [David Hahn] said Wednesday.

"Anytime you have a major incident and you have no one hurt or killed in this type of thing, I think you always think it's a miracle," David Hahn said. "You always think, thank God, and you (are) thankful for the crew. That's what they're trained to do. They've done their job once again."

Most probably two people died in this tragedy. Reporting has sunk so low...

David Hahn, CEO of BC Ferries, handled this tragedy terribly. Without being sure about the status of all passengers he went ahead and gave a statement that all passengers were safe. Anyone who had listened to the news and can count beyond 99 understood there was a discrepancy in the list, that accounted for 99-101 passenger. Never mind, David Hahn has a PR job to do. Bring the best positive story for BC Ferries; praise the wonderful work of the workers and lets not worry about the discrepancy of two people. I even heard the Coast Guard come up up with a similar statement on CBC TV that same morning. Something like "Oh, we just have to be sure that nobody was left behind. Just a formality".

Well, they were wrong. And this behaviour might have jeopardized the two lives.

There are issues where from a business POV positive spin is the best you can do to resolve it; Dead people is not one of them.