'We certainly need to do better': BC Ferries addresses communications fiasco

Frustration is mounting with BC Ferries following a communication disaster on Tuesday when the company posted wrong information about sailing wait times on its website and Twitter account, which had prospective passengers cancelling plans or diverting to other terminals.

“I would wholeheartedly agree that as a company, we certainly need to do better for our customers," said James Tan, the company's chief information officer.

He explained its current conditions webpage isn't all that accurate because instead of providing real-time information, the system predicts what's available.

“Part of the challenge is that we’re trying to predict the best we can on information, however, until each sailing happens, we won’t actually know what’s going on the ground," he said,

Tan admits the system is flawed and outdated and can't keep track of the travelers who don't show up for their reservations.

“We are cautiously pessimistic and conservative in how we forecast simply because we don’t overbook our sailings because we want to make sure that every customer that has a reservation has the ability to get on," he said.

“There’s a complexity there that we’re still grappling with. What’s the best way to convey this? Because it’s very difficult and challenging to predict, for example, how many no-shows you get. And from a policy perspective, we don’t overbook. So we don’t want to oversell and commit to customers," he continued.

Alyn Edwards, a communications consultant with Peak Communicators, told CTV News that BC Ferries needs to do better, especially since its online social media team was repeating the errors on the website.

“The communications team needs to push back on management and say, 'You can’t give us wrong information. Don’t give us any information if you don’t have guaranteed bonafide information that we can give the public because it’s embarrassing,'" he said.

"It’s embarrassing for the public relations people. It’s embarrassing for the government. And it’s really embarrassing for British Columbians because we’ve invited the world here to travel to beautiful British Columbia and it’s just not working," he continued.

At a news conference in Victoria about electric buses, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Rob Fleming faced a flood of ferry-related questions.

“Yesterday, we potentially turned away loads of customers. People were relying on inaccurate information, making travel decisions based on that. That can’t happen," he said.

"And I know the CEO and the team there are working on ensuring that it doesn’t happen again for the remainder of the summer," he continued.

He said an update in technology and a complete overhaul is part of their investment plan and admits it can't come soon enough.

“We’ve got to be 100 per cent in vessel capacity, crewing options and making sure that we’re getting people where they need to go," Fleming said.

The problem won't be solved overnight, but officials said it's looking to improve the system and better communicate with customers.

BC Ferries announced on Wednesday that the Coastal Celebration – which was taken out of service for repairs, decreasing capacity on the most popular route -- is expected to be back in service by Friday.