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Auckland commuters were left in shock when a rush-hour ferry captain didn't let them board this morning.
Jade Sullivan said she was left standing in a queue watching the 8am Fullers ferry leave the Devonport wharf for downtown Auckland despite it being far from full.
Sullivan said stunned passengers questioned why they couldn't board but were told by the ferry captain that their service was understaffed.
There were about 20 people left waiting on the dock, Sullivan said.
Fullers360 chief operations officer Paul Trotman confirmed that the 8am sailing from Devonport to Auckland reached its capacity and several passengers had to wait for the next ferry.
"The vessel was unable to carry its full capacity of passengers due to staff shortages meaning we were unable to fully crew the vessel," he said.
"The capacity for this particular vessel with three crew is 199 passengers, when fully crewed with four is 274."
Sullivan claimed the captain also shouted out the number of Fullers' chief executive to disgruntled stranded passengers and urged them to lodge a complaint.
"The captain had mentioned they have requested additional staff on the service to manage the number of people using the ferry, but have been met with silence from the CEO," she said.
However, a spokesperson for Fuller360 said: "Our chief executive Mike Horne has not been contacted and I understand his phone number was not handed out to passengers this morning.
"I've been told that our skipper correctly followed our standard operating procedures in relation to capacity and encouraged people to contact our customer care team for any complaints."
Sullivan said she boarded the next ferry.
"It was my first day back at work from my holidays, and I ended up running late. I just feel for the staff really."
Passengers were left stranded at Devonport wharf this morning after a ferry captain refused to let them on board. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Jonathan Beale was also standing at the end of a long queue at Devonport this morning waiting to catch a ferry.
Beale said he was frustrated to see the ferry timetable changed to two per hour from three.
"Every morning there are big queues. There is standing room only on some ferries.
"The ferries are too small. The back is full of people with bikes."
Trotman said this morning that a staff shortage impacted the number of passengers who would have been able to board in line with Maritime New Zealand protocols.
"Fullers360 has been operating with reduced crew numbers for some time now as a result of the industry wide skills and people shortages - an ongoing result of Covid-19 as well as a mix of winter illness.
"This is something we're actively working to remedy to help resolve disruptions like this."
Trotman said over the past four weeks, about 30 per cent of their marine workforce had been impacted by sickness.
"We apologise sincerely to customers who are impacted by service disruptions, but rest assured we are working hard to minimise disruptions where possible especially during peak commute times.
"We're pleased to see that our internal training programme continues to feed the pipeline of marine talent at Fullers360 and this year alone just over 25 per cent of crew have progressed to higher qualified marine roles."
