To the Editor:
The Steamship Authority recently finalized plans to raise vehicle rates for nonresidents and tractor-trailers, as well as increase the price of all of its Falmouth parking lots on summer weekends from $15 to $20 per day.
These increases came after a particularly tough year for the Steamship, as their boats repeatedly broke down, several times in the middle of the ocean, which caused well over 500 cancellations. In addition, a bus caught fire in the Palmer Avenue lot and engulfed 15 cars, and they struggled to keep an open line of communication with Islanders and travelers to inform them of many cancellations and other shortcomings that took place.
It is no secret that many Steamship policies have long needed change, but the string of breakdowns, followed by the new rate hikes, make the company’s issues that much more glaring. Nowhere is this need for change more apparent than the policies regarding the Islander excursion rate, which is meant to ensure only Islanders receive a discount, but in reality prohibits many Islanders from receiving it due to an overly stringent policy regarding eligibility.
Under the current policy, you must, among other things, both be registered to vote on the Island and possess an ID with an Island address. While that may make sense on paper, state-issued IDs are valid for five years, and it is far from guaranteed that the address on your driver’s license will continue to reflect your current address for that amount of time. A requirement that would force someone to go through the process of purchasing a new ID when they already possess a valid one just to get a discounted car reservation rate is an unnecessary burden.
There is also the policy concerning how to remain on the excursion rate, or more accurately, not be purged from the discount. Currently, all reservations that leave the Island must have a returning reservation within one month to maintain excursion status. That is too burdensome on too many Islanders to be left intact. Islanders bound for college almost inevitably lose the discount this way, as the only way to keep it is through the college excursion rate. This entails infinitely more paperwork, including sending forms to the college registrar, who must then be relied on to send documentation to the Steamship confirming they are a student, a process that can often take longer than the time allotted to keep the discount, if at all. Likewise, if you are taking a trip longer than a month, or are retired and moving to a secondary residence for more than 30 days, you lose the excursion rate discount.
That is wrong. For a company that prides itself of being the “lifeline to the islands,” many of the SSA’s policies make travel sink-or-swim for too many people who call the Island home. Now that the nonresident reservation rate is increasing, it is imperative for the Steamship to open up its Islander rate so all Island natives and full-time residents are able to become eligible for and remain on the excursion rate.
Here’s how it can easily be done. First, if you were born and raised on the Island, which is easy to prove through birth certificate, proof of graduation, or multiple-year attendance in an Island school, you get the excursion rate for life. The reason for a lifetime membership is that for people who grew up here, the Island does not stop being your home just because it is no longer your primary residence, especially when your immediate family often still resides on the Island. Second, eliminate the provision that you must return within a month to maintain the discount, and begin allowing open-ended reservations for those on the excursion rate. Islanders do not stop being Islanders; if you already receive the excursion rate, you should not have to worry about losing it. Finally, for everyone else who works or lives on the Island full-time, but may not be originally from here, open up eligibility. Proof of full-time residency and/or occupation on the Island is enough to prove you live here, and that is much less burdensome to obtain than renewing your driver’s license. Otherwise, too many people who are either from the Island or currently reside on it will be directly affected by these rate increases, which were designed to not affect Islanders following the pushback from residents.
Improving access to the Islander excursion rate is obviously not a complete solution to all of the woes Islanders face when dealing with the Steamship Authority. It remains the only option when traveling to and from the Island, which presents a plethora of issues, not the least of which is the higher prices Islanders will now experience in the grocery store and at the gas pump due to the tractor-trailer rate hikes causing increases in shipping costs. There is also the moral dilemma that the SSA is both a legal monopoly and the regulatory body for all other ferry services on the Cape and Islands, meaning the parking lot increases will almost certainly be unilaterally handed down to the Hy-Line, Island Queen, and others. However, if the Steamship is dedicated to serving the community and not just reaping financial gain, and is hungry to regain the trust of an Island community it has rightfully lost, opening up the excursion rate is an important first step.
Mitch Lowe
Oak Bluffs
#breakupthesteamshipauthoritymonopoly
Describe the organization you think should replace the Steamship Authority.
Nonsense. Everyone ought to pay the same fare. Maybe seniors ought to get a break. To discriminate against non residents is clearly implying that they are wealthier and should pay more. This may appeal to the liberals on MV but the fact is that much of the property taxes paid is from non residents who don’t use schools and other year round services. We already have island cards for grocery discounts and I would wager it is the residents who make up all the non collectible receivables who bankrupted Hinckleys for example. We are subsidizing with these little entitlements and they will become embedded and make things worse.
Appreciate the breadth and depth of your letter but this strikes me as very discriminatory. Whose to say what constitutes an Islander — someone born, someone conceived, someone who has 4 generations or someone who just retired? Its sets the stage discriminatory treatment — how about this? If you own a home and pay taxes and they are current, you qualify for the Islander discount. To do any other way is only to discriminate on the basis of highly imperfect definitions of “who is an Islander” — lets rid ourselves of these insulting false classes and distinctions.
Your argument of “what constitutes an Islander” was the main point of my writing this letter, as the Steamship Authority’s current Islander excursion rate already dictates their policy of what constitutes an Islander. This letter supports opening up that policy to everyone who lives on the island year round. If your view is that expanding the policy so that everyone who depends on it is “very discriminatory,” you have missed the point. Choosing to own a second home on the island is not the same as being raised or living and working here full time; to equate them is unrealistic and misguided. You don’t choose where you grow up, while Steamship prices are and should be a factor when choosing your summer home.
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