Steamship Authority Downsizes; Savings Estimated at $1 Million

By James Kinsella
Gazette Senior Writer

Senior managers at the Steamship Authority quietly announced yesterday that a total of 23 positions were eliminated earlier this year by offering severance packages to employees.

While the downsizing move initially cost the boat line $804,000, general manager Wayne Lamson said he expects it will save the boat line $1 million this year with no actual layoffs. The $804,000 was booked as a one-time charge against SSA accounts in March, Mr. Lamson said.

"It was a good step. Not one person lost their job . . . We are already to realize savings," Mr. Lamson said.

The news surfaced at the monthly boat line meeting held on Nantucket yesterday morning.

Also yesterday the boat line board voted 5-0 to sell the Schamonchi, a conventional passenger ferry that had operated on the Vineyard-New Bedford route, for no less than $100,000.

Mr. Lamson said he believes that the Caribbean Shipping and Marine Service of Flushing, N.Y., is prepared to pay $100,000 for the vessel. The company earlier this year bid $77,000 for the Schamonchi, soon after the boat line decided to sell it. The SSA had hoped to receive $625,000 for the vessel but failed to receive any bids near the asking price.

Under a plan masterminded by then-Vineyard representative J.B. Riggs Parker, the boat line paid $1.75 million for the Schamonchi, its route and related assets in 2001. But the vessel lost $800,000 a year in its first three years of operation. The losses prompted the SSA to license the route to a private operator, which chose to use its own vessel on the route. The boat line had no other use for the Schamonchi and moved to sell the vessel.

Also yesterday, Thomas Pachico, Vineyard Haven's representative on the boat line port council, paid tribute to Maxine Horn, the secretary to a long succession of general managers, who recently retired.

"She was the glue that held [the boat line] together through different turmoils and different general managers," Mr. Pachico said.

Arthur Flathers, a Vineyard Haven resident who regularly attends SSA meetings, recommended that the boat line create a customer service award in Mrs. Horn's name.

As for the reduction in positions on the ferries, Mr. Lamson said the boat line reached the agreement to cut the slots with the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association, which represents unlicensed employees who work on SSA ferries.

By offering severance packages to 23 unlicensed employees with seniority, Mr. Lamson said the SSA was able to cut back on its labor costs without laying off employees. The plan will allow lower-ranking employees to move up to higher-ranking positions.

The move effectively eliminates one or more ordinary seamen positions during the off-season on the SSA's largest ferries on both the Vineyard and Nantucket routes. Mr. Lamson said that the agreement, depending on the time of the year, generally will cut staffing on the large boats from 14 to 13 or 12 on the Nantucket run. The agreement either would not affect staffing on the summer Vineyard runs, or drop the staffing from 14 to 13 in the off-season. Ordinary seamen are paid at an hourly rate of $17.35, which works out to $37,892 a year.

Mr. Lamson said no positions in the pilot houses, such as captains or pilots, or any licensed positions on the ferries were eliminated under the agreement.

SSA officials, including Mr. Lamson and Marc Hanover, the boat line board chairman and Vineyard governor, have stressed the importance of controlling labor costs, especially in light of declining traffic figures.

Boat line governors learned yesterday that passenger and automobile numbers continued to dip in the first three months of the year compared with the same period in 2004, falling 4.8 per cent to 303,435 passengers and 6.4 per cent to 68,906 automobiles. Truck traffic rose 10.9 per cent to 28,578. SSA officials said the increased truck numbers can be misleading because the rules were changed last year to count large SUVs as trucks.

Through the first three months of the year, the SSA reported a net operating loss of $8,020,783. That is $137,926 worse than expected. The boat line loses money in the off-season and makes up for it during the summer months.

SSA board members praised Mr. Lamson and his management team for keeping the boat line's financial performance fairly close to budget, despite higher fuel costs and the large severance payment charge.

"Wayne and his guys are doing a terrific job, given all the curve balls they're dealing with," Falmouth governor Robert Marshall said.

Nantucket governor Flint Ranney praised the boat line for notifying customers the prior day about trip cancellations. The low Nantucket turnout for the meeting indicates that the Island is happy with the SSA operation, Mr. Ranney said.

In other action, governors voted 5-0 to award PKM Contractors Inc. of East Dennis a job to build an overflow parking lot near the Barnstable Municipal Airport for $314,000. The expansion of a runway safety zone has forced the boat line to shift the lot outside that zone.

Also, Carl Walker, director of engineering for the boat line, said the recently modified ferry Gay Head has been drawing too much water, limiting the number of passengers allowed under Coast Guard rules to travel on the boat. Mr. Walker said the SSA will spend $25,000 to take out some of the ballast in the vessel to allow her to ride higher in the water and carry more passengers.

In the next week or so, the boat line also plans to move its Woods Hole food concession stand, which had been located in a trailer, to a spot inside the Woods Hole terminal.