CalMac warned of 'unlawful' plan for 'punitive' charges for changing lifeline ferry bookings

Those who give less than 24 hour notice or do not show up will not get their money back.

But one user group has warned the move would be unlawful if they do not commit to an Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA).

There has already been concern from that there has been failures to conduct the assessments into the impact on island communities.

That includes the much-criticised ‘first-come-first-served’ booking policy which Transport Scotland instruct CalMac to apply.

The Mull and Iona Ferry Committee has previously written to transport minister Jenny Gilruth to warn that neither CalMac nor the Scottish Government agency Transport Scotland have followed their legal obligations under the Islands Act over what they call a "discriminatory" booking service for lifeline ferries.

CalMac have said the move towards charging comes to "address a significant problem" of people cancelling or changing bookings at short notice which resulted in unused deck space - denying other customers the opportunity to travel.

The plan involves customers seeing a 75% cut in the total vehicle fare if they give between 24 hours and seven days notice of cancellation. Those who give between eight and 28 days notice would get a 50% cut and the rest would get a 25% cut.

READ MORE: 'A scandal' - Nicola Sturgeon told to take personal responsibility for Ferguson Marine fiasco

The details of a consultation have not yet been made public, and been distributed to certain elected representatives.

The document written by CalMac commercial director Diane Burke, seen by the Herald, also reveals that the ferry operator plans to make a £10 levy if anyone wants to change the date or time of a journey 48 hours or more in advance of travel.

It says there will be exceptions to the charges where it is needed to deal with the death of an immediate family member, when a debilitating illness prevents travel and where the user is involved in a road traffic accident.

It will also not impose the charge if one leg of a multi-vessel journey is cancelled by the ferry operator or where NHS National Services Scotland cancel an appointment.

Ms Burke said that the introduction of the road equivalent tariff (RET), which sets fares to the equivalent cost for travelling the distance by road, has meant traffic across the network has grown by 37% in the last seven years.

"While good news for local economies, this does present capacity constraints, especially at peak times. We are investing resources to understand and manage demand better," she said.

"We identified that standardising the way passengers’ book and pay for sailings, and consistently applying our terms and conditions is key to optimising deck space.

"Our proposal outlined a tiered cancellation structure (excluding commercial customers with block reservations), and we have previously adopted some of these elements.

"However, we now need to apply additional tiers and modify our cancellation levy to incentivise earliest notification of cancellations, allowing us to reallocate vehicle deck space."

She added: "This proposal is aimed at discouraging those who make multiple reservations, then cancel the ones they no longer require at late notice, often too late for us to reallocate the space."

According to the current terms and conditions, unless cancelled prior to sailing time, customers failing to show are charged the full single fare.

Joe Reade of the Mull and Iona Ferry Committee said: "We acknowledge that ‘no-shows’ are a problem for the service, and we often witness ferries departing with much less than a full car deck, even though online ticket sales had closed because the sailing was ‘full’.

"We are not convinced however that punitive charges are the best or fairest way to address this problem, nor that ‘no-shows’ can by themselves account for the under-utilisation witnessed.

"Surely a more targeted and fair approach would be to identify those few repeat abusers of the process, rather than penalising all islanders. It will also be far less bureaucratic and complex. They appear to be using a punitive and indiscriminate hammer to break this particular nut.

"There are often many legitimate reasons for failing to arrive at a sailing on time – for example, as a result of traffic delays en-route to the port, or changes to travel plans due to weather (for example moving livestock to and from the mainland). This initial proposal from CalMac seems to be that if we are held up by a traffic jam in Glasgow and miss our intended sailing, we will forfeit our entire ticket fare. That cannot be right or just.

"We would also point out that any policy or service being applied to the islands must have an Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA) carried out on it, under the terms of the Islands Act."

He said government guidance stresses the importance of robust community engagement so that islanders are given a platform to voice their opinions, concerns and suggestions.

The committee said the CalMac denied ICIA was needed on the grounds that it was a ticketing "system" and not a ticketing "service".

The Act requires an ICIA to be carried out on "services or policies" being applied to the islands.

"Use of such semantic arguments to circumvent proper consultation does not suggest respect for the Act or empathy for islanders. There can be no such semantic argument in the case of these proposed charges, because they describe it themselves as a policy," said Mr Reade.

"These new punitive cancellation charges are being proposed, together with the explicit justification that it is '...comparable to the policies of other UK ferry operators'.

"We understand that CalMac intends to begin consultations with ferry committees this month, and we trust that indicates the beginning of a full ICIA consultation process."

A spokeswoman for CalMac said: “These proposals are a response to complaints from communities about ferries appearing to be fully booked but then sailing with unused spaces. It is standard practice for transport providers to discourage passengers from cancelling a booking at the last minute by charging a late cancellation fee.

“Demand is growing every year for our services and it is important that we seek the views of communities on how we maximise the number of spaces available for our customers. "The consultation involves all eight ferry committees and transport forums across the network and is launching this month."

Each consultation period will last 30 days, after which CalMac will collate all feedback, review, and assess any impact. Its findings and responses will then be published in June 2022.