Hullo Ferries marks one year, looks to expand service

It was a shaky start for Hullo Ferries after its inaugural sailing was cancelled due to bad weather, but fast-forward one year and the service is looking to head deeper into open waters.

Reflecting on the last 12 months, CEO Alistair Caddick says they’re open to improving after welcoming roughly 400,000 customers.

Caddick feels the company is better prepared to handle things when the weather goes awry.

“We’ve had a full year, different weather conditions, different sailing conditions, winds, waves and we’re in a much better position than we were a year ago with all of that experience. Just looking at the last five months, since April, when we create a schedule, we meet that schedule. We sail 99.3 per cent of the time.”

Caddick adds Hullo’s sailings also leave on time, its vessels have Wi-Fi, and it doesn’t have an ongoing staffing shortage that leads to delays or cancellations.

“It isn’t something we’ve faced. Many of our employees have been with us from the first day. We’re in the fortunate position that we don’t have to cancel for crewing.”

Hullo Ferries currently has two vessels that can go between 70 km/h and 75 km/h between Downtown Vancouver and Downtown Nanaimo. There are typically 14 trips a day, fewer on Tuesday and Wednesday when demand drops and the trip takes roughly 70 and 75 minutes.

Accessibility remains something of a sticking point, however. There are some spots for wheelchairs, but bikes can’t be accommodated on board.

“It’s something we’re trying to have in place before the end of 2024. The vessels themselves are pretty compact. They take 350 passengers and there’s not much additional room, and there’s no outdoor space. Once you put 350 passengers and their luggage, there’s only a little bit of extra space, so we’re trying to create that little extra space for bicycles. It wouldn’t be 50 bicycles, but could we get five or 10 — that’s something that we’re looking at.”

He adds the goal moving forward is to market the ferries as an easy way to travel.

“One of the things that we’ve recently added that we’re looking to gaining traction in year two is certainly some people when they come to Vancouver Island from the Lower Mainland, they do want a car. We now have partnerships. We now have Evo cars at our lot. We now have Modo cars at our lot and we’ve got National, the car rental company.”

The next step is growing its business model.

“We had 400,000 guests use us in the first year, and we’re looking to grow that number.”

Caddick says it’s also looking to be the solution to getting people to and from major events. During the Vancouver Canucks playoff run this past season, Hullo Ferries had extra sailings to help get people back to Vancouver Island post-game.

“One thing people have really enjoyed are special event sailings. Going to the Canucks games, going to the BC Lions games, Whitecaps games. We know the PNE is starting soon, concerts. That’s something we added in the first year and we had great support. People really liked going to their events and getting home the same night and being in their bed. So, we’re going to add more of those in year two.”

Looking to year three, four, or five, Caddick says if demand persists, the company may get a third vessel as it looks to potentially expand service to other communities with Victoria being at the top of the list.

1130 NewsRadio asked, but Caddick wouldn’t comment on whether they turned a profit in the first year, saying they don’t share financials because they’re privately owned.