Red Funnel has once again been shortlisted for Ferry Operator of the Year at the prestigious 2015 National Transport Awards. The news closely follows Red Funnel’s announcement in May 2015 that it is bringing the building of aluminium high-speed ferries back to the UK, having commissioned a brand new fast ferry from a shipyard on the Isle of Wight. Costing £6 million, Red Jet 6 will be the first vessel of her kind to be built in the UK for 15 years and is set for delivery in July 2016.
Red Funnel has also recently invested £4.4 million in the refurbishment of two ro-pax ferries in its fleet, the Red Falcon and the Red Osprey, following a record breaking 2014 which saw its car market share increase to 39.6%. Last year the company carried over 3.3 million passengers per annum on its routes between Southampton and East and West Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
Kevin George, CEO at Red Funnel, said: “We are delighted to be nominated for Ferry Operator of the Year for the second year running. We believe this is testament to our ‘customer first’ strategy and the significant investment we have made in delivering an unrivalled experience for cross-Solent travellers. We are pleased this work has been recognised by the judges and we look forward to the awards ceremony in October”.
Other recent initiatives that Red Funnel has implemented that were part of the company’s awards submission included:
- Introducing life-saving medical kits across its fleet which exceed statutory requirements, and training staff in how to use the new equipment.
- Financially rescuing an integrated bus service in Southampton which carries 1m people per annum between the train station and the ferry terminals – it faced closure due to the withdrawal of local authority funding.
- Working with local young people, using Red Funnel employees’ skill, experience and confidence to instil enjoyment in STEM subjects.
- Investing in extensive customer service training for employees, introducing user group forums and the deployment of customer greeters, which have resulted in a 113% increase in compliments and 16% fewer complaints in 2015 vs. PY.
Red Funnel is shortlisted with five other UK ferry companies for the title of Ferry Operator of the Year at the National Transport Awards ceremony in October 2015. The awards, which are supported by the Department for Transport, celebrate the successes of national and local transport projects, and how they have added to the successful development of the nation’s transport infrastructure.
Free Wi-Fi for Red Jet customers
Red Funnel has also rolled out a new high capacity Wi-Fi solution across all its vessels and terminals in time for the peak summer season. Following successful trials, the system promises improved connectivity and greater bandwidth to cope with a fivefold increase in demand over the past few years. Red Funnel was the first cross-Solent operator to introduce Wi-Fi for customers more than 7 years ago but the increase in demand from users of smart devices and signal drop-outs along certain sections of the journey has prompted the company to make a significant investment in a third generation solution which utilises the latest technology.
The new Wi-Fi system supplied by Trellisworks Limited uses carrier class equipment with multiple carrier 3G/4G back-up for seamless failover in areas of poor signal coverage. Compared to traditional point to multipoint systems, both the operating range and the reliability of the ship to shore link has increased significantly through the use of multiple antenna technology and adaptive multipoint access protocols. The number of wireless access points has also been increased significantly on Red Osprey and Red Falcon so that customers can obtain a strong Wi-Fi signal throughout the ship.
Jonathan Green, marketing and communications director said “Following extensive trials, we are delighted to be launching our new onboard Wi-Fi service to coincide with the start of the school holidays. We are particularly pleased to have overcome the technical challenges of providing a robust connection to our Hi-Speed vessels which is a technical first on the Solent and great news for Red Funnel’s 1.1m Red Jet customers”.
Jim Kernahan of Trellisworks commented “Providing resilient connectivity to a large number of people travelling by sea at high speeds has only recently become possible with the latest technology. Even so, considerable thought has gone into the design of the new network infrastructure to ensure that we could confidently deliver the high bandwidth and reliability that Red Funnel and its growing customer base wanted”.
Customers can access the new system from their phone, tablet or laptop at the ferry terminals or onboard by selecting ‘Red Funnel FREE Wi-Fi’ and accepting the terms & conditions of use. The system cleverly manages the bandwidth available to each customer by taking into account the total demand from users to ensure that access to email and low bandwidth services is maintained even at peak times.
For more information and the terms & conditions of use please see www.redfunnel.co.uk/wi-fi
