P&O Ferries stop operation 17 March 2022
 

Just been announced that P&O ferries are stopping for an unspecified reason:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60779001

As I hear more I will update this thread.

So 800 of their staff have been sacked with immediate effect and, it is thought, that new staff on cheaper and easier for the company contracts no doubt, will be coming in to replace them.

I get that they have been hit by Covid -as have we all - but there appears to be underlying issues with P&O Ferries that are more deep seated - they say that they have been losing £100m year on year which is clearly unsustainable.

The expectation from the company is that they will start running ferries again in a few days - we shall see.

An utterly shocking way to treat your employees.

I hope that people will now vote with their wallets but unfortunately money talks.

The drop in business during the covid pandemic somehow didn't prevent them paying £270m in dividends to their shareholders.

Can't see me ever using a company that did that, given the choice.

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/ne...acking-316674/

They’ve already got mine - they’re supposed to be bringing us back to the U.K. in just over a fortnight. I’m now wondering if they’ll hold up their part of the deal.

I used to think P&O were the class act of ferries, with the others not much better than jumped up truck transport, but not any longer. What on earth were the management thinking. Did they think we were all looking east and wouldn’t notice. They’d now be far better off keeping the workers and firing all the management. :(

That the parent company paid out £270m in dividends is not a reflection on the viability of P&O - if P&O were not losing “£100m” a year then the dividends would have been higher. However there should be some concern about how much cheaper the replacement staff are. If you work on the basis that they new staff are £10 per hour cheaper and they work a 40 week then the saving is less than £20m so they are either getting the incoming staff to pay for the privilege of working for P&O or there is some BS being given out - I think I know which it is.

Personally, I shall not be using P&O again - not because they will be using new staff but because of the way that they have treated their outgoing staff.

P&O
 

Many years ago I was a regular user of P&O. They even allowed me to scatter my wife’s ashes from the ferry we used to use. Sadly the current company is a shadow of the one I knew. They even lied to the contract workers saying they were going to go on a new ship and the current crew were bringing the ship in only. I think this is a way of reducing wages and de unionising the workforce. What they have done is actually illegal under current UK law but as we have again sold of the family silver to overseas companies little will be done by the UK government. However people can vote with their feet and there are other operators and the train option.

So that saga continues. There are now 2 P&O ferries that are out of service due to safety concerns relating to the crew and their familiarity with the ships.

I know that the UK voted to leave the EU but I didn't realise that that meant the ferries were going too.

I give up with P&O. I’m in France at the moment and there’s no certainty that they’ll be able to bring us back. So our only option has been to buy another ticket with another company. I don’t suppose we’ll ever see our original ticket money again, and I won’t forget it. Moral outrage aside I’ll need some convincing on financial grounds to use them in the foreseeable future

P&O is obviously run by idiots to think they could get away with this.

If you make a government look stupid (er) you are going to find every petty rule and burocratic minutiae is suddenly dealt with in the harshest way possible. Two ships suddenly impounded is the MCA suddenly sure they have support all the way to the top.

The customers are going to vote with their wallets and pick services less likely to fail due to industrial blockades or government revenge.

If P&O want to get thrown out of the UK market I'll take this back, they are doing a great job.

Andy .

An advert popped up on my facebook timeline from P&O Cruises - who were at great pains to make it clear that they were nothing to do with P&O Ferries. It is almost as if P&O had suddenly become a toxic brand name. Who would have thought that? Clearly not the current P&O FERRIES or DP World boards.