Ford Fiasco as Guardian reveals Scotland’s ferries cost ‘eye wateringly’ less to maintain than the average family car

I know, I’ve done this already but seeing it in the Guardian, the newspaper of academics and professionals, is a further example of their jaundiced and/or ill-informed coverage when it comes to Scotland but, usefully, prompts me to check if that is actually a lot to spend on maintenance.

So, here we go, more sums, stay with me, Primary 5-level sums.

The average family car:

  • Annual maintenance costs – £800
  • Annual average annual family car mileage – 8 000 miles.
  • Thus maintenance cost per mile – 10p and per passenger (5), 2p per mile.

The average large ferry:

  • Annual maintenance costs – £125 000 (£100m divided by 8 ferries and then by 10 years, as in the above report)
  • Average annual mileage for a large ferry (Oban to Mull) – 44 000
  • Thus maintenance cost per mile – £2 80p and per passenger (1 000, not counting crew), £0.28p per mile.

Thus, average family car annual maintenance, per passenger, per mile, costs 2p, 7.14 times that of the average large ferry, per passenger per mile.

10 thoughts on “Ford Fiasco as Guardian reveals Scotland’s ferries cost ‘eye wateringly’ less to maintain than the average family car”

  2. I agree , 35 ferries so £285,000 average maintenance per year. Seems pretty cheap when you consider A the scale of even the smallest ferries, B the conditions they serve in, salt water, high seas, winds, heavy vehicles etc and C the mileage they cover every year and the thousands of hours of engines working.

    I tried to find out typical maintenance costs for airlines and their fleets but nothing appears to be available.

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  3. The Herald especially seems to be in a bit of a frenzy about “maintenance costs”. Everything needs maintenance otherwise it will fail at some point.

    I am often asked why I “tinker” with cars, after I explain that it is actually “preventative maintenance” and what its for, sometimes a light seems to come in the questioner that there is really a reason why I “tinker” with cars and anything else mechanical. It helps keeps the overall cost in running the vehicle down and I am confident that the vehicle will get me from A to B safely. Plus, it will be in a reasonable state when I flog it.

    I suspect that a lot of the costs that the Herald, Guardian etc are now complaining about are for planned maintenance schedules when a boat is taken out of service for inspection, maintenance work and if required “repaired”.

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  5. I am not sure why the good Prof referred to eight ferries, when as has been pointed out, CalMac has thirty-five. I believe that works out to about  £2600 per year per ferry. The Guardian apparently believes that the safety of Scots is not worth that measly sum.

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    1. A quick Google search reveals that CalMac operates on average 162,700 sailings per year. Calculated over ten years, that is less than 10pence per sailing, but The Guardian clutches its pearls at spending money on safe travel to Scottish islands.

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      1. Sorry, I’ve seen that since I’ve read their inane article. Their position seems to be that money should not be spent keeping safe travel open to the Scottish Islands. The sum they clutch their pearls over is not by any stretch an outrageous amount.

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