SSA sees steep drop in crew-shortage cancellations

The Steamship Authority has seen a steep decline in cancellations through July of this year, with crew shortages seeing the most dramatic change, coming in the aftermath of a new contract reached with union workers. 

Steamship treasurer and comptroller Mark Rozum told Port Council members last week that compared with last year, cancellations overall on both the Vineyard and Nantucket routes from mechanical issues went down 36 percent, and weather cancellations dropped 35 percent from the beginning of the year to July. He also said cancellations from crewing and scheduling, which includes changes to the number of trips run by boats, collectively dropped 58 percent during the same time period. 

“We’ve settled our union contracts, we’ve done training, we’ve improved our maintenance,” Rozum said. “So we’re seeing progress to our strategic plan.”

On just the Vineyard route, the improvement was particularly noticeable among cancellations caused by crew shortages. By the end of last December, there had been 129 trips canceled by crew shortages in 2024, which was more than double the year before. Meanwhile, there have only been six trips canceled from January to July this year for the same reasons. 

The Steamship Authority wrapped up long and contentious contract negotiations with the union representing its mariners this past spring. The lengthy negotiations, which were signed nearly a year after the contracts expired, were held up over issues regarding work hours that crew members were dissatisfied with. 

While cancellations from mechanical issues — a more consistent reason for canceled trips on the Vineyard route — improved overall compared with last year, just the Vineyard route saw little change. On the route, the Steamship reported 41 cancellations between January and July 2025 and 42 cancellations between January and July 2024. By the end of December 2024, the Vineyard route had 98 cancellations for mechanical reasons that year. 

Ferry officials have said that an increase in preventive vessel maintenance and investment in its workforce have paid off.