Columbia's return to service in doubt for lack of crew

A state Department of Transportation official told legislators that the ferry system is “burning out our crew” with lots of overtime amid staff shortages, and that the problem jeopardizes tentative plans to bring back the Columbia to service in Southeast for the first time since fall 2019.

The Alaska Marine Highway System as of March 16 was down 125 employees from the minimum needed to staff its full online summer schedule plus the addition of the Columbia, according to a department presentation to the Senate Finance Committee.

Deputy Commissioner Rob Carpenter said 250 new hires would be even better, and would allow for employee sick leave and vacations, while avoiding frequent overtime.

The Department of Transportation did not respond Monday for comment on whether it will reduce the summer schedule to account for crew shortages.

The ferry system over the past three years has lost 155 more employees than it has hired, the department told senators.

Transportation Commissioner Ryan Anderson called the lack of crew “our biggest challenge for the Alaska Marine Highway System right now.”

Department officials told legislators more than a month ago that the tentative plan to bring back the Columbia in May was dependent on hiring enough crew. The number of vacant job positions has not declined much in that time, despite national advertising and a state contract with an Anchorage-based recruiting firm to find employees — paying the contractor $5,000 for each new recruit.

It’s not just an Alaska problem, Carpenter told the senators, the maritime industry nationwide finds itself short of crew amid an extremely tight labor market.

Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman, co-chair of the Finance Committee, asked Carpenter: “If the recruitment doesn’t come through, how are you going to sail the ships?”

The department said it would get back to the committee with an answer.

“My expectation is that they will not be running the Columbia,” Stedman said in an interview after department officials presented their update. “I don’t see how they get those employees,” he said, noting that Coast Guard licensing or certification takes time before a new employee can go to work on an operating vessel.

“The instability that the Marine Highway System has gone through the past several years makes it difficult” to recruit workers and assure them their jobs will remain intact, the senator said.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy imposed steep budget cuts in his first year in office in 2019, forcing the ferry system to scale back service.

Though the governor has proposed a higher budget for the ferries for the fiscal year that starts July 1, Stedman noted “it takes years to turn an organization around.” The senator said financial stability could be an important consideration for attracting new employees.

The system now has sufficient funding but is “significantly down on our hiring,” Carpenter said.

Though the Alaska Marine Highway System has been looking forward to bringing the Columbia back to work on weekly runs between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska this summer, it has not been accepting reservations for the ship until it is certain of its return.

Regardless of the staff shortage, the ferry system is committed to resuming service between Ketchikan and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, starting in June, and still hoping to add a couple of runs in May, the department told the Senate committee.

Bookings on the Prince Rupert runs are looking strong, Matt McLaren, the system’s business development manager, told senators March 16. Some travelers who had made reservations out of Bellingham are switching to Prince Rupert, he said. It can be $3,000 cheaper to put an RV on the Alaska ferry at the Canadian port than to make the longer voyage from Puget Sound.

The Marine Highway System has not stopped in Rupert since fall 2019.

The House and Senate Finance Committees are working through the ferry system budget this month, with both looking to reduce the heavy reliance on federal infrastructure money proposed by the governor.

“When that money runs out, what’s the plan,” Sen. Natasha von Imhof asked March 16. “I just worry in five years where all the money is coming from,” the Finance Committee member said.

The federal infrastructure funding is scheduled to run five years, then end.

The governor proposed using the federal aid to replace all but a few million dollars of state money in the ferry system budget.

“We’ll be working on that,” Stedman said after the committee meeting. “It is a concern.”

 

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