Regulate transport by sea to Grenadines

30.MAR.07

Editor: For the past six or more months sea transportation to the Grenadine islands beyond Bequia has gotten progressively worse while at the same time becoming more costly. This mode of transportation had improved tremendously what it used to be in the days prior to the 1990s.

However, it is no longer a pleasure to travel on the mail boat. Common knowledge is that it has been operating on one engine rather than two.{{more}} Consequently, it slugs across the water and arrives late to and from Kingstown. However, in the time that the service of the mail boat has degenerated it has ironically become more costly to travel and transport goods on it. It is now $80 return from the furthest point to and from Kingstown. It costs $35 plus to transport a television or any other box bearing the label of an electronic device. You are asked to declare to the captain the contents of any box bearing such labels and are charged according to the contents therein. It is now $7 to bring a box of chicken leg quarters, wings and any such box. The customer service on this boat had never been better than inadequate so this is not to be commented on. The other boat that travels to the furthest point of the Grenadines has been notoriously late since it began service. However, since this year it has been arriving, more often than not, at night. There is a third boat that is primarily a cargo boat. It has been out of commission for some weeks now with no definite word on when its service will resume.

I believe that we should place our energies on getting the service providers to improve and upgrade their service i.e. vastly reduce the amount of time it takes to travel from the furthest point to Kingstown and vice versa and improve on customer service. This will complement the recent passenger facilities at the port. The $1 service charge is really a negligible sum for a facility that uplifts our dignity, comfort, independence and seafaring nature as people of the Grenadines. I hope that the powers that be act immediately to regulate the quality of the sea transportation service being currently provided to the Grenadines especially that to the Southern islands. We are in desperate need of some reprieve.

Sincerely,
From the Grenadines