Teams at Caledonian MacBrayne have been rewarded for their efforts with three shortlisted nominations for the Scottish Transport Awards.
The awards, which will be held on 16 June in Glasgow, recognise exceptional endeavour and commitment across the transport sector within a wide range of categories.
Caledonian MacBrayne has been shortlisted as Public Transport Operator of the Year, in the category of Excellence in Innovation and Technology and for Frontline Employee of the Year.
The Frontline Employee of the Year nomination recognises the dedicated work of 23-year-old customer services Demi Wylie in the face of a difficult period of industrial action last year.
With much disruption across the network expected, Demi became aware of seven island weddings which were in jeopardy and seven pairs of very distressed brides and grooms. She took it upon herself and a small team to become the single liaison point for all those involved and skilfully worked with the couples to make sure their special days were not derailed.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the company, a team of technical staff, led by project manager John Gray, has been implementing a high-tech system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on board all 10 of CalMac’s major vessels.
Known as Project Ecoship, the installation of fuel monitoring systems on the large ships is expected to reduce the release of harmful gases by a target of two per cent – equivalent to 1,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, 4,285,714 miles driven by an average passenger car, or 645 tonnes of waste sent to landfill. CalMac is the first ferry company in the UK to implement this over a major part of its fleet.
Caledonian MacBrayne operates the UK’s largest ferry network, carrying 4.3 million people, 1.1 million cars and 87,000 commercial vehicles in 2015 alone, with technical reliability and punctuality of 99.6 per cent and 99.7 per cent across more than 135,000 individual sailings.
