New Ferry Rules For The Future

[GBgraham]

I think this will catch on throughout the ferry and shipping industry🤔

https://greekcitytimes.com/2024/05/13/travel-restrictions-for-electric-and-hybrid-vehicles-on-ferries-safety-concerns-and-challenges/

[FROSTYBALLS]

Topic moved to General Discussions.

[Haliotis]

Upon what factors have these rules been based?  Are they from actual incidents, or are they supposition based?

Pre-Covid, we regularly traveled to France by ferry, taking our car/caravan outfit to France.  We never had any “restriction” problems.  Also we have not travelled to France since 2019, we have heard frequent mention of restrictions in hat types of foodstuff can be brought on board - so much so that it sounds as though caravan/motorhome cupboards and fridges cannot be used to adequately keep the occupants supplied with food in the immediate period of first lading in France.

Is there any reason to suspect that most of these rules are a swipe of bitterness with the advent of Brexit?

[Cyker]

12 hours ago, GBgraham said:

I think this will catch on throughout the ferry and shipping industry🤔

https://greekcitytimes.com/2024/05/13/travel-restrictions-for-electric-and-hybrid-vehicles-on-ferries-safety-concerns-and-challenges/

I hope not, that'd be such a pain in the proverbial.

If they ban specific cars that have known problems then fair enough, but a blanket restriction like that is just idiotic paranoia - EVs that use iron phosphate batteries are less flammable than ICE vehicles and the new solid-state batteries on the horizon should be even less flammable than that!

 

[GBgraham]

I don't think it's a swipe for Brexit at all. More like dire concerns at what can happen with EV and PHEV fires at sea and the inability of containment.

Quite a few ferries (and life) has been lost due to fires that's started on the vehicle decks at sea so I would guess they are attempting rightly or wrongly to limit the possibilities by regulation.

I do feel these regulations will eventually spread through the EU and may be to the UK

 

[Haliotis]

9 hours ago, GBgraham said:

I don't think it's a swipe for Brexit at all. More like dire concerns at what can happen with EV and PHEV fires at sea and the inability of containment.

Quite a few ferries (and life) has been lost due to fires that's started on the vehicle decks at sea so I would guess they are attempting rightly or wrongly to limit the possibilities by regulation.

I do feel these regulations will eventually spread through the EU and may be to the UK

 

Graham, I was thinking of the “swipe at Brexit” being more to do with the carrying of food restrictions, and possibly the EV/hybrid car restrictions being, though obviously reasons for assesssing safety, perhaps a little over emphasized.    Of course, any real risk has to be dealt with but Cyker’s comment about blanket restrictions cannot be totally ignored. I cannot help but wonder if the ferry companies may have been given the jitters by suppositions from the media.

[GBgraham]

Yes but the major rulings and regulations like ham sandwiches or UK mud on the tyres are conjured up by the petty in Brussels by unelected autocrats. 

As for the ferry companies I feel these particular regulations are made because they are the cheapest and easiest to appease the jittering media probably.  

[Haliotis]

Some years ago, whilst in France, a camp warden gave my wife a bunch of male pheasant tail feathers. These were on the back seat of our camper van during the journey home.  I have learned since that we could have been in trouble if the  UK border people had spotted them.

[Gren]

5 hours ago, GBgraham said:

 

As for the ferry companies I feel these particular regulations are made because they are the cheapest and easiest to appease the jittering media probably.  

.. or the ferry company insurers?

[chilaspt]

On 5/15/2024 at 6:58 AM, GBgraham said:

Yes but the major rulings and regulations like ham sandwiches or UK mud on the tyres are conjured up by the petty in Brussels by unelected autocrats. 

As for the ferry companies I feel these particular regulations are made because they are the cheapest and easiest to appease the jittering media probably.  

The problem is that the UK is now like any other non European-union country, so those rules apply, (as they have always applied to non European-Union countries in regards to some animal products, live plants, seeds, etc). It's a shame this is the case, but it is what it is.

[Cyker]

Indeed - It's not like these consequences were hidden; Instead people chose to believe the lies of people like Farrage and Johnson "Oooh we're too big and powerful these things would never be applied to us".

And then when they were applied as expected, they scuttled off or said they never made such promises.

Yet we still keep falling for it - These populists are so adept at selling dreams and false promises, those that might actually do good for the country never get a look in.

[GBgraham]

13 hours ago, Cyker said:

Indeed - It's not like these consequences were hidden; Instead people chose to believe the lies of people like Farrage and Johnson "Oooh we're too big and powerful these things would never be applied to us".

And then when they were applied as expected, they scuttled off or said they never made such promises.

Yet we still keep falling for it - These populists are so adept at selling dreams and false promises, those that might actually do good for the country never get a look in.

Wow such bitterness #Cyker and it looks like you have nailed your cross firmly to the wall? I'm a floater living in the EU and if you think all that is bad with the UK is down leaving the EU, the blinkers definitely need removing😉

As far as ferry regulations go, if the EU follow Greece by adopting a blanket ruling the UK will have to comply the same as most if not all of the ferry destinations are to Europe, anyway this is just the way the UK flipflop all the EU rules, regulations and laws to suit their narrative.

[Cyker]

Oh I am so bitter - It's so irritating that everything has happened so predictably, i.e. that we'd still be slaved to EU rules because - news flash - they're our main trading partner, but now we have no say in creating/changing/veto'ing those rules, and while we technically can do whatever we like because we're no longer tied to EU rules, it turns out we can't because while we aren't tied in law we are in trade!

It's like literally having the worst of both worlds since we've lost all the advantages we had of being in the EU but gained very little!

The worst thing is we could have leveraged more of the advantages of Brexit (And don't get me wrong, there are potentially a lot) if we had competent politicians, but it seems they're better at sniping at each other and trying to gain personal influence and power and throwing each other under the bus than putting together solid treaties and new agreements that actually get us something.

For instance, they were patting themselves on the back so hard for negotiating zero-tariffs they completely over-looked and were blindsided by the insane amount of paper work and red tape, which have arguably cost much more than any tariffs would have, and from what I hear it's getting worse.

Don't get me wrong, I know it's not all green grass on the other side - e.g. I know the french are having a massive energy cost crisis because, for some reason they're having to pay super high electricity prices, which makes no sense since their massive use of nuclear power should mean they have the cheapest electricity prices in the EU, but apparently it's due to some EU regulations/rules which are having this unintended side-effect.

This is just catharsis though - It's too late to do go back now so not point in really whining about it - we just need to do what we always do and make the best of what we have, while trying to remind people what happened so we don't keep making the same mistake again in the future (Which, given our track record so far, doesn't seem optimistic...!)

 

[Mjolinor]

4 minutes ago, Cyker said:

competent politicians

That is an oxymoron.

[GBgraham]

I do agree with your despair of the PM's and the politicians that were supposedly taking us forward into independence. Sir DC failed to get the simplest concessions from Brussels so he spit his dummy out and scarpered after the vote. ( and his comeback is also disastrous) Then we had TM who was a pathetic and inept HS so I knew she would be terrible from her past endeavors.  Then BJ reentered the fray, imo a very  intelligent and intellectual but unfortunately a bit of a clown. 

All these 3 could have redeemed us in one way or another and to be fair we can't totally blame the PM's but the teams and ministers behind the scenes then ending in a global pandemic. As to your last paragraph, again I'm in full agreement, the horse has bolted and hopefully the door is firmly shut because any attempt to reverse the process will mean we have to sell our soul. Business abroad is not as bad as you are suspecting and trade outside the EU has grown tenfold, so don't lose faith. 

As I stated, don't blame everything that's wrong with the UK on Brexit and as you say and I can assure you the grass ain't any greener on the other side, fortunately where I am they try their hardest to ignore many of the EU rules. 

IMO, All that is wrong with the UK is down to the last 20 years has allowed our politicians to sleepwalk us the citizens into a very bad and dark place domestically and that I can only see a drastic future to turn things around.

[Mjolinor]

Britain is turning round despite the "help" of the powers that be.

Manufacturing is climbing quickly and we still lead the world in brain exporting. If we could stop the export of the grey matter we would be doing even better.

[FROSTYBALLS]

As regards Brexit, the UK is still only part way through a journey.

Lies during and after the Brexit negotiations were prevalent on both sides and the media - that's politics, so nothing new.

So back to the topic subject, please - 'new ferry rules for the future'.

[Haliotis]

All our previous holidays in France have been by towing a caravan with a conventional diesel ICE vehicle.  Now having retired from caravanning, our next French holiday (hopefully in 2025), and most probably with our present C-HR hybrid.

Looking at the quoted regulations, my main concerns are the 40% maximum permitted charge in the hybrid Battery, and the 50% maximum permitted amount of petrol in the tank.

Our route is from Leicestershire to Portsmouth, and the practice was to start out with a full fuel tank, and then to top up at the Sutton Scotney Services on the A34, have a break, then onwards to the Portsmouth ferry terminal.      The journey in France from St Malo to our holiday destination is only 18 miles.

My problems with the hybrid will be: (1) How to judge my fuel consumption so as to arrive at the Portsmouth docks with no more than 50% petrol in the tank, and (2) how to establish a charge of no more than 40% in my hybrid Battery.

The fuel use is so frugal, compared to my previous ICE vehicles that I am not sure of what I would expect to use on the journey.  Leicestershire-to-Portsmouth will be a first with my hybrid car for me.

The latter, for me, is  a problem.  I do not know how to check this Battery level - never having had the need to bother with that kind of info - and what could I do about it if the level was too high?

[Corolly Poly]

If yours isn't a PHEV it shouldn't be a concern unless you have gone downhill on the brakes for a couple of miles into the port. Not sure these regs are directed at conventional HEV's anyway. Even if it is a PHEV can't you just run the Battery down completely before arrival at port by running in EV mode or something? Not sure how PHEV's work once away from a charging point so might be completely wrong😁

[Paul john]

These rules are probably aimed at 14 year old nissan leafs anyhoo. 

[Mjolinor]

3 minutes ago, Paul john said:

These rules are probably aimed at 14 year old nissan leafs anyhoo. 

+ Tesla.

[GBgraham]

3 hours ago, Haliotis said:

All our previous holidays in France have been by towing a caravan with a conventional diesel ICE vehicle.  Now having retired from caravanning, our next French holiday (hopefully in 2025), and most probably with our present C-HR hybrid.

Looking at the quoted regulations, my main concerns are the 40% maximum permitted charge in the hybrid battery, and the 50% maximum permitted amount of petrol in the tank.

Our route is from Leicestershire to Portsmouth, and the practice was to start out with a full fuel tank, and then to top up at the Sutton Scotney Services on the A34, have a break, then onwards to the Portsmouth ferry terminal.      The journey in France from St Malo to our holiday destination is only 18 miles.

My problems with the hybrid will be: (1) How to judge my fuel consumption so as to arrive at the Portsmouth docks with no more than 50% petrol in the tank, and (2) how to establish a charge of no more than 40% in my hybrid battery.

The fuel use is so frugal, compared to my previous ICE vehicles that I am not sure of what I would expect to use on the journey.  Leicestershire-to-Portsmouth will be a first with my hybrid car for me.

The latter, for me, is  a problem.  I do not know how to check this battery level - never having had the need to bother with that kind of info - and what could I do about it if the level was too high?

Don't worry about the CHR as I had one and by the time you leave the ticket office and board the ferry the Battery criteria will be archived.

[Paul john]

3 hours ago, Haliotis said:

All our previous holidays in France have been by towing a caravan with a conventional diesel ICE vehicle.  Now having retired from caravanning, our next French holiday (hopefully in 2025), and most probably with our present C-HR hybrid.

Looking at the quoted regulations, my main concerns are the 40% maximum permitted charge in the hybrid battery, and the 50% maximum permitted amount of petrol in the tank.

Our route is from Leicestershire to Portsmouth, and the practice was to start out with a full fuel tank, and then to top up at the Sutton Scotney Services on the A34, have a break, then onwards to the Portsmouth ferry terminal.      The journey in France from St Malo to our holiday destination is only 18 miles.

My problems with the hybrid will be: (1) How to judge my fuel consumption so as to arrive at the Portsmouth docks with no more than 50% petrol in the tank, and (2) how to establish a charge of no more than 40% in my hybrid battery.

The fuel use is so frugal, compared to my previous ICE vehicles that I am not sure of what I would expect to use on the journey.  Leicestershire-to-Portsmouth will be a first with my hybrid car for me.

The latter, for me, is  a problem.  I do not know how to check this battery level - never having had the need to bother with that kind of info - and what could I do about it if the level was too high?

My real world experience would probably advise this.

with a full tank setting out no more that 20% will be used leicester to portsmouth

since you are in a HEV the Battery will charge on that journey

remember to turn off the anti-theft sensor on the ferry and you wont P off anyone with your alarm

you are overthinking this as Franco customs Wont be checking that much detail.