CEO Brittany Ferries

Mt Christophe Mathieu

Brittany Ferries

Millbay

Plymouth

PL1 3EW

Email: [email protected] (no spaces)

ceoemail: https://ceoemail.com/

It seems to me that Brittany Ferries are assisting you all they can but the loading crew seem to ignore requests from management. Unfortunately, with the Bretagne being the oldest of the fleet (1989), there's not much they can do regarding easier access. Some of these powered wheelchairs are rather large which makes it difficult to access the ship compared to a standard chair. Fingers crossed when the new ship comes into service and vessels moved around, you may get Pont-Aven to St Malo.

Perhaps someone else could drive on board for you and you used the foot passenger route to board the ship?

It seems to me that Brittany Ferries are assisting you all they can but the loading crew seem to ignore requests from management. Unfortunately, with the Bretagne being the oldest of the fleet (1989), there's not much they can do regarding easier access. Some of these powered wheelchairs are rather large which makes it difficult to access the ship compared to a standard chair. Fingers crossed when the new ship comes into service and vessels moved around, you may get Pont-Aven to St Malo.

 

Perhaps someone else could drive on board for you and you used the foot passenger route to board the ship?

Brittany Ferries are most certainly not assisting as much as they can, and the issue is not with my wheelchair, which is actually smaller than a manual chair. If we're parked by the accessible lift, there's no problem, it's actually one of the better ships for access, but we shouldn't be having to argue with the loading crew every time before they (usually) park us there. All Brittany Ferries have to do is tell the loading crew that the needs of passengers must come before their convenience and that would be the end of it, but they simply won't do that. Quite apart from any other issue, expecting anything on wheels to navigate a tight turn in narrow corridors at the head of a staircase is inviting an accident. I doubt it's coincidence that when travelling from France to the UK so that loading is from the opposite direction, all assistance vehicles are automatically parked by the 'safe' lift.

We used Pont Aven a couple of times last winter whilst she was covering this route. On both occasions the loading crew parked all the disabled vehicles in a long line between two lifts, one of which was out of order, waited until we'd all left the car deck and then parked all the other vehicles so close around that no one could get back to their vehicle the next morning. Another passenger posted a review on Tripadvisor which described the loading crew directing traffic around my wheelchair rather than wait 30 seconds for me to get out of the way, so no, I don't hope we get Pont Aven.

I usually use Brittany Ferries when I go on a booze cruise (usually one per year) and I can say that the loaders pack everyone in the loading decks as tightly as possible so for someone in any form of wheelchair, this presents problems. There's usually only room for a single file of people so how can a wheelchair move along the row unless a disabled car is placed at the most accessible place which would obviously mean that they are placed nearest the disabled access.

The thing is, before loading, traffic is directed to a waiting area and form up in little neat lines. what is the problem with having a dedicated line for disabled travellers? Once some vehicles have been given permission to drive on board, stop other traffic and let the disabled drive on which would put them nearest the access they need. Not rocket science is it?

Having said that, I have found the staff on board generally pleasant although I have rarely spoken to the loading crew. Having read your tale of woe, I would have ended up arrested for physical violence. I can't stand poor performance!

Absolutely, the point is that it is possible or we would never have been parked by an accessible lift. We and everyone else admit it's more difficult to park a specific vehicle in a specific place, which is why the loading crew don't like it. One argument is that it might hold up departure - we were arguing for at least 15 minutes last time during which loading on that deck came to a complete halt. The ship still left 5 minutes early. If they'd just done what they should in the first place, it would have been at least 15 minutes early.

Unfortunately for Brittany Ferries I have official opinion that making travel on my chosen route this difficult amounts to refusing to carry me on that route and the only get out clause for that breach of the EU regs (similar to the ones for airlines about assistance etc) is that it is impossible, not just difficult or inconvenient, and since it has been done before obviously it's not impossible.

Just been contacted by my local paper. Disabled access on public transport is apparently big news at the moment and something other than being stranded on trains or planes seems to be attracting attention. I don't think it'll be on the front page, but hopefully some of the nationals will pick it up as well.

Our tweeting seems to have had an effect

Indeed.

What rational argument and reasonableness cannot achieve, the power of negative publicity can, I hope.

It's a shame it has to come to this, but I hope it works, RMW. They certainly ought to listen.

HB

Brittany Ferries' legal department have contacted me - late on a Friday afternoon, again. In fact, 26 minutes before their time limit ran out.

At first glance it appeared to be a win, at second glance there are still a few issues, not least that we suspect that option 2 (drop me off at the accessible lift, go back to pick me up when we arrive) or option 3 (park us by the inaccessible lift, offer the onboard chair to get me to the passenger decks) will actually become the default option rather than option 1, which is of course to park us by the accessible lift.

From experience, even if they genuinely believe the loading crew will somehow now magically do as they are told, it won't last. We'll maybe get one or even possibly two crossings where there's no arguments and everything goes smoothly, then we'll be back to square one and all this hassle will have been completely pointless. I almost wish they hadn't contacted us as I would have then been able to go to ABTA and any solution from there would have had to be permanent.

From experience, even if they genuinely believe the loading crew will somehow now magically do as they are told, it won't last. We'll maybe get one or even possibly two crossings where there's no arguments and everything goes smoothly, then we'll be back to square one and all this hassle will have been completely pointless. I almost wish they hadn't contacted us as I would have then been able to go to ABTA and any solution from there would have had to be permanent.

Except, when it fails, it shows they could (and initially, did!) make “reasonable adjustments”, and (though they weren’t ideal!) you were reasonable in trying to make them work.

You record events each time going forward, and when they fall back on their old ways you show you trying to use a reasonable adjustment, and them failing to deliver it in practice.