Karlos- Location: Dover
- Registered: 1 Oct 2012
- Posts: 2,529
No sailings this morning.
Rumours of administration?
Jan Higgins likes this
Dover Pilot- Registered: 28 Jul 2018
- Posts: 346
Crew ordered off all vessels. Company announcement later today.
Jan Higgins likes this
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,865
The Covid restrictions must have hit P&O finances badly especially the cruise ship side of the business, I would imagine the ferry side should be safe. Whatever the reason the crews and their families must feel very worried about what is happening.
Edit.....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60779001-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Button
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,051
I'm guessing that shipping is feeling the effects of fuel prices in a way that Eurotunnel isn't.
(Not my real name.)
Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,047
Jan Higgins wrote:The Covid restrictions must have hit P&O finances badly
Whilst coach and car figures roughly halved , freight was hardly affected through Dover.
https://www.doverport.co.uk/about/performance/"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Karlos- Location: Dover
- Registered: 1 Oct 2012
- Posts: 2,529
Have also heard that Russian money might be involved.
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,047
RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said: “We are deeply disturbed by growing speculation that the company are today planning to sack hundreds of UK seafarers and replace them with foreign labour.
"We have instructed our members to remain onboard and are demanding our members across P&O’s UK operations are protected and that the Secretary of State intervenes to save UK seafarers from the dole queue.”
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,051
Well, 2021 compared with 2019, freight down 10%, cars 83% and coaches 94% if my maths is correct.
(Not my real name.)
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,047
Which it isn't!
Cars down 45%
Coaches down 61%
Freight down 5%
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Dover Pilot- Registered: 28 Jul 2018
- Posts: 346
All sailing staff at P&O Ferries have been made redundant with immediate effect.
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,051
Are you sure? I make 2,149,595 89.66% of 2,397,270, a reduction of 10.33%?
(Not my real name.)
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,047
I was comparing 2021 to 2020. My bad!
Button likes this
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Neil Moors- Registered: 3 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,299
Devastating news. Hammer blow to the town. I've no idea if the Government can intervene here but seems like an ideological issue as much as anything else.
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,047
'Existing staff can apply to the agency for work, in a move branded 'outrageous' by furious union leaders' !
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10622893/P-O-Ferries-suspends-sailings-ahead-major-announcement.html"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,865
There is so much speculation as to what is happening, the latest is immediate compulsory redundancies with (foreign?) agency workers to replace staff.
Even Sky and BBC news programmes do not seem to know any of the facts.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Utterly reprehensible. Employment rights can be rode rough shod over. Compare and contrast with the volte face over MPs second jobs and Boris's broken promises.
BTW - a former member of my staff worked briefly for them in early 2021. He was sacked for raising questions about the probity of the company's IT contracts. It stinks.
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Jan Higgins wrote:The Covid restrictions must have hit P&O finances badly especially the cruise ship side of the business, I would imagine the ferry side should be safe. Whatever the reason the crews and their families must feel very worried about what is happening.
Edit.....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60779001
There is no cruise ship business in the current P&O trading entity. This is all about the ferry operation owned by DP World.
Neil Moors- Registered: 3 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,299
It has clearly been planned for weeks. Nobody knew? Government completely blindsided. Johnson was literally in UAE yesterday. Natalie Elphicke has one hell of a job on her hands here.
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,047
From the Telegraph:-
The ferry company is owned by Dubai state-backed company DP World, my colleague Oliver Gill writes.
It has been operating without needing to make repayments on £120m of loans for the past two years, according to the parent company's financial filings.
Lenders gave the operator a 24-month payment holiday from making repayments, which ran out this month.
DP World also injected a shareholder loan of up to £160m as part of the deal with external lenders.
But the end of repayment holidays may have put pressure on P&O's finances.
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158