Bill Moses was indentured to the New Zealand Shipping Company in 1968 as a deck officer cadet and served his apprenticeship on board mv Otaio, the company's training vessel.

Bill left NZS in 1970 and joined Fred Olsen as a deck officer on their Baltic RoRo service trading between Norway, Sweden, Denmark and West Germany. This was to be Bill's first taste of the ferry world, and in the early seventies he came ashore as a manager with Thanet Line, based in Ramsgate, Kent. Soon afterwards his talents were recognised and he became instrumental in the set up and operation of Olau Line, a multipurpose ferry service linking the Kent port of Sheerness with Vlissingen (Flushing) in Holland.

Headhunted by Sea Containers in 1985, Bill joined the newly privatised Sealink British Ferries and turned the heavily loss making Folkestone - Boulogne service into profit in only 18 months. As a result of this achievement, in 1987 Bill was invited to run the entire short sea operation of Sealink, which included services from Dover to Ostend, Zeebrugge, Dunkerque and Calais, as well as the Folkestone services. During this period a total of 11 ships were operated with a total work force which exceeded 2500. Bill spearheaded rationalisation and introduced cost-effective working practices, thus ensuring strong profitability for the group.

Following the takeover of Sealink by Stena, Bill was asked by Sea Containers to run Hoverspeed, which operated services from Dover to Calais and Folkestone to Boulogne. Bill was successful in turning the business into profit, achieving the highest level of profitability for the group in his third year with the company. During the period he introduced five new SeaCats and gained very valuable experience in the design and operation of fast ferries generally.

Bill has been responsible for a number of shore based port operations in the UK and mainland Europe and in 1995 joined Sally UK Holdings plc as Group Chief Executive.

Whilst the dynamics and economics of the ferry industry and, more importantly, the arrival of the Channel Tunnel, saw rationalisation of the industry and the ultimate decision of Sally's parent company to retrench to the Baltic and the subsequent closure of Sally's business interests in the UK, Bill remains confident in the future of the industry for which he has much affection and expertise.

His new venture, Ferry Management Services Limited, continues the tradition of providing advice and expertise to the conventional freight and passenger and fast ferry industry. In addition Port Logistics Limited supplies heavy port related equipment and management expertise to the global ports industry.

Chief Executive
Ferry Management Services Limited
PO Box 161
Faversham
Kent
ME13 0DF
United Kingdom

Phone:
+ 44 (0) 7811 389 383
+44 (0) 1795 520 268

Fax:
+ 44 (0) 1795 520 643

Web:
www.ferry-management.com
www.ferrynews.com

Email: experts@marinetalk.com