22 Jun 2018

Fiji's shipping service given wake up call

11:58 am on 22 June 2018

Fiji's Consumer Council says maritime passenger safety and service is not good enough and it's calling for an urgent review of regulations on inter-island shipping vessels.

The Council said it gets numerous complaints every year about overloaded vessels, missing and damaged cargo, as well as cancellations and delays without notice showing a continued disregard for passenger comfort and concerns.

The most recent complaint was regarding Goundar Shipping's Lomaiviti Princess 5 that forced passengers to wait on board for more than six hours from reporting time before the vessel eventually departed for Vanua Levu.

During this time, passengers were told they could not disembark to buy food and the company also failed to inform passengers of departure time or the cause of delay. A complainant stated food on the ship was too expensive.

The Council also noted that while ticket receipts showed the reporting time, the shipping company failed to stipulate departure time to the consumers, showing a lack of accountability on the part of the shipping company.

It said the customer service policies of shipping companies were decades behind and Fiji's inter-island shipping travel system needed to be overhauled.

The Consumer Council asked Fiji's Maritime Safety Authority to develop regulations from consumers' perspective to improve service quality and shipping business practices.