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Department of Transportation/Public Facilities
Marine Highway System
Results Summary | Details | Questions/Comments
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| | Provide safe, secure, reliable and efficient transportation of people, goods and vehicles through the Alaska Marine Highway System by developing and implementing sound policy and procedures for operations, and staffing with well trained professionals who are sensitive to the needs of our customers.
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| | - The Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) operates 11 roll-on/roll-off passenger ships during the summer season and as few as 4 ships during the fall, winter and spring season. Weeks of operation are tailored to meet the needs of the traveling public and communities while maximizing revenue and minimizing costs.
- AMHS transports people, goods and vehicles to and from 32 ports along 3,500 route miles from Bellingham, Washington out the Aleutian Island chain to Unalaska.
- Shore operations includes 16 state-owned terminals and their staff who provide shelter and book passage for an average of over 320,000 passengers and stage over 100,000 vehicles per year aboard AMHS vessels.
- 776 shipboard employees crew AMHS vessels based upon U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) requirements and 164 shore side employees including terminal operators provide support to the vessels and crew.
- AMHS constantly maintains, repairs, refurbishes, and upgrades its vessels and terminal facilities. Hard use in a marine environment and the stringent regulations (state, federal, and international) governing passenger-carrying marine vessels determine the need for these activities.
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 End Result: |
Strategies to Achieve End Result
| | A: Improve mobility of people and goods. Details > |
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| A1: Provide reliable, convenient and efficient service. Details > | |
| | End Result: |
Strategies to Achieve End Result
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| A:
Result - Improve mobility of people and goods. |
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Target #1: Meet or exceed 95% satisfied customers with Marine Highway System reliability, convenience and efficiency.
Status #1: Customer satisfaction with the Marine Highway System has stayed strong at 96% for the 4th year in a row, with a high percentage of respondents giving an excellent rating.
Methodology: FY2004 Data is not available.
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Analysis of results and challenges: Independent surveys are conducted onboard Alaska marine Highway System vessels at various points throughout the summer season. Passengers are asked to rate a variety of aspects relative to their experience. The survey data is summarized and the results are presented to management.
Alaska Marine Highway ensures a high degree of customer satisfaction through the development of a culture that cares about all passengers. Every section works to instill a high degree of responsibility to their staff to take care of our passengers.
We also credit our success to training. We have provided joint training at the “Senior Officers Meeting” in the areas of human resources, customer service, communication, information technology, procurement and interpersonal relationships. Training leads to more knowledgeable, confident employees; which in turn, transfers to great service to our passengers.
The Alaska Marine Highway System strives to improve the customer experience. We continue to look for new, better or different ways to improve the overall satisfaction of our passengers.
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| A1:
Strategy - Provide reliable, convenient and efficient service. |
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Target #1: Meet or exceed industry standard for on-time departures.
Status #1: On-time departures in 2008 were 93% which is an improvement over the 85% previous 3-year average and well above the industry standard of 75.1%,
Analysis of results and challenges: The target is for the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) to consistently exceed the on-time airline departure benchmark of 75.1%. An on-time ferry departure is within 30 minutes of the scheduled departure time.
Numerous events can cause delays in ferry departure times, especially weather and tides. An additional relevant factor is the time it takes to load/unload large and/or low slung vehicles (RV's, trucks w/trailers, heavy equipment) during busy periods. Most of these factors are out of the control of AMHS. Nevertheless, making schedule modifications in the event of continual and systematic delays are within the department's control.
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Target #2: Increase the frequency of port calls by 5% from the prior year.
Status #2: Alaska Marine Highway System port calls decreased 8% in FY2008 from 7,626 to 7,019, and short of the 8,007 target
Number of port calls to Alaska communities
| Fiscal Year |
YTD Total |
Target |
Variance |
| FY 2008 |
7,019
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8,007
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-7.96%
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| FY 2007 |
7,626
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8,337
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-3.95%
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| FY 2006 |
7,940
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5,964
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+39.80%
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| FY 2005 |
5,680
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6,306
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-5.43%
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| FY 2004 |
6,006
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6,710
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-6.00%
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| FY 2003 |
6,390
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6,613
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+1.46%
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| FY 2002 |
6,298
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6,687
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-1.11%
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| FY 2001 |
6,369
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0
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Methodology: Target is increase of 5% from prior year.
Analysis of results and challenges: This measure reflects the service level provided to communities dependent upon the Marine Highway System. FY2008 showed an overall decrease in service weeks, from 427 in FY2007 to 375 in FY2008. Rising costs put pressure on the system to reduce the service levels being provided. That reduction in service resulted in reduced port calls.
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| B:
Result - Improve performance. |
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Target #1: Increase the ratio of revenue per rider mile to the cost per rider mile by 2%.
Status #1: The ratio of revenue per rider mile to the cost per rider mile decreased by 3% between FY2007 and FY2008.
Ratio of revenue per rider mile to cost per rider mile
| Fiscal Year |
YTD Total |
| FY 2008 |
0.33
-2.94%
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| FY 2007 |
0.34
-10.53%
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| FY 2006 |
0.38
-15.56%
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| FY 2005 |
0.45
-10%
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| FY 2004 |
0.50
+4.17%
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| FY 2003 |
0.48
-4%
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| FY 2002 |
0.50
+8.7%
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| FY 2001 |
0.46
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Analysis of results and challenges: FY2008 operational costs saw significant increases to the delivered cost of fuel, which brought the referenced ratio into a negative trend from the previous year. Delivered fuel cost $2.90 per gallon which is a 27% increase from the FY2007 average price of $2.28 per gallon. Other factors driving up the cost of service were labor increases of 3% negotiated with the Masters, Mates and Pilots (MMP) and Marine Engineers Beneficial Association (MEBA).
The Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) continued to see increased ridership as passenger and vehicle count were up 1% and 3% respectively but earned revenue fell 2.2%. The increase in ridership was for shorter or winter voyages that do not generate a great deal of revenue. This is related to the Malaspina being converted from a long haul vessel to a day boat operation. Revenues were also negatively impacted by a generator fire aboard the Columbia which curtailed its operations during the summer season. AMHS put in place a 3.2% tariff increase at the start of FY2008.
AMHS is in the process of evaluating the upgrading of the fleet with the addition of shuttle ferries. The vessels Malaspina, Matanuska and Taku are approaching the ends of their useful lives and it is management’s belief that these boats should be replaced by day boat shuttle ferry operations. It is envisioned that these clone shuttles would operate in North Lynn Canal, between Ketchikan and Prince Rupert and potentially Prince William Sound. These vessels are being designed to be very economical and will provide for more efficient scheduling in high volume areas. In turn, these new vessels will allow for increased efficiencies through greater asset utilization.
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| B1:
Strategy - Increase revenues. |
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Target #1: Increase onboard sales per passenger by 5% over the previous 3-year average.
Status #1: Onboard sales per passenger were $28.63, which is a 4.5% decrease from the previous 3-year average of $29.98.
On-board sales per passenger compared to 3 year average
| Fiscal Year |
YTD Total |
Prior 3 year average |
Variance |
| FY 2008 |
28.63
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29.98
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-4.5%
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| FY 2007 |
29.79
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30.14
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-1.2%
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| FY 2006 |
30.06
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29.52
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1.7%
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| FY 2005 |
30.09
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28.14
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6.9%
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| FY 2004 |
30.27
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25.11
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20.5%
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| FY 2003 |
28.19
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| FY 2002 |
25.97
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| FY 2001 |
21.19
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Methodology: Target is 5% increase from prior 3-year average.
Analysis of results and challenges: The Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) continues to look at increasing ship board generated revenues. At the beginning of FY2008 a 3.2% increase was placed on staterooms to reflect the market demand of these ship board services. During FY2008 the Malaspina was converted from a long haul vessel into a day boat operation which has a drastic effect on on-board sales as the vessel’s staterooms are not sold. This ratio was also impacted by the summer breakdown of the Columbia which is a major provider of passenger service income streams.
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Target #2: Increase passenger capacity utilization by 3%.
Status #2: Passenger capacity utilization was 29%, which is a 6% increase over the prior 3-year average of 27.3%.
Passenger capacity utilization
| Fiscal Year |
YTD Total |
Prior 3 year average |
Variance |
| FY 2008 |
29%
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27.3%
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6.23%
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| FY 2007 |
27%
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28.7%
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-5.92%
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| FY 2006 |
26%
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30.3%
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-14.19%
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| FY 2005 |
29%
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31.7%
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-8.52%
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| FY 2004 |
31%
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32.7%
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-5.19%
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| FY 2003 |
31%
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| FY 2002 |
33%
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| FY 2001 |
34%
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Methodology: Target is 3% increase compared to 3-year average.
The analysis converts capacity data into passenger miles by taking the sum of each trip's passenger capacity and multiplying it by the distance the ship travels. This produces the capacity number. Next, the analysis considers the actual sum of passengers that were on board and multiplies that number by the distance they traveled. This produces the utilized number. Finally, the utilized number is divided by the capacity number to produce the utilization percentage.
Analysis of results and challenges: In FY2008 the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) saw increased customer utilization, as a direct result of providing a consistent schedule, mitigating the reduction in service to Bellingham by emphasizing travel thorough Prince Rupert, British Columbia and increasing service to Sitka and the Lynn Canal communities.
AMHS remains committed to the current schedule and will strive for the earliest possible schedule releases. It is anticipated that passenger and car deck utilizations will continue to increase.
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Current as of Jan 9 2009 16:31:46 |
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