HAVING 'stalked' and even resorted to outright harassment of, in some cases, members of the continuous cruiser and liveaboard communities, it now appears to be the turn of the hire/share boat/holiday maker sector to feel the 'benefit' (sic) of having an unaccountable Trust in charge of the waterways, writes Ralph Freeman.
Wildcat stoppages?
In tactics reminiscent of the car industry unions of the sixties, CaRT appears to be putting stoppages into place as and when it feels like it without making its intentions known beforehand. Why these guerilla tactics? Can't it be bothered to organise winter stoppages any more?
It causes big problems for hire boat companies and ruins holidays for the rest. Such is CaRT's contempt for its customers it doesn't seem to care about real customer relations i.e offering customers value for money and a waterways fit for boating; PR propaganda apparently solves everything? I don't think so!
The plan
So is the overall plan:
a) To force all boats onto expensive moorings
b) To make the system so unreliable that boaters are forced to leave their boats on those moorings except for short weekend breaks—stoppages permitting of course.
c) To teach boaters a lesson and make them realise who is in charge?
Hire boat brochures
In order to comply with consumer trading legislation will hire boat brochures have to replace statements, such as:
'From our base it is possible to do the Four Counties Ring in a week'
with
'From our base it is possible to get to the first stoppage and back in a week' I ask ?
Doesn't look so good, does it?
Ridiculous
Of course the above suggestions are ridiculously illogical and sheer speculation on my part.
However, dear reader, I'll leave it up to you to attempt to figure out why CaRT is so intent on shafting it's prime customer and fund provider—the boating community/industry?