Glitzy Nantucket-dwellers face a summer of severe inconvenience after the island’s main courier forgot to reserve slots on its ferry service, which have now sold out.
Locals and visitors planning to spend part of the busy summer season on the well-heeled Massachusetts island face having to do so without delivery from UPS. That came after the delivery giant’s blundering bosses ignored the usual advance offer to reserve slots for its trucks on Nantucket’s Steam Authority ferries.
Upmarket shops on the WASP-filled island, which sits 30 miles off the Cape Cod coast, now face shelves devoid of the designer goods usually snapped up by vacationers.
Nantucket visitors and residents have also been warned they’re far less likely to be able to get goods they order online delivered, with UPS serving as the main Amazon courier to the island.
Resident William D Cohan thinks the pushiness of well-connected residents – who include Secretary of State John Kerry, and Google boss Eric Schmidt – will ultimately solve the issue.
The writer told the Boston Globe: ‘In Nantucket, if you make enough noise, they deal with it. The summer folks are going to have to get their twee outfits they ordered from Hermès online.’
But Steam Authority says its ability to lay on extra boats is limited by the number of vessels it runs, as well as staffing levels, meaning there is no obvious or easy fix to the snafu.
UPS will not be making any deliveries to Nantucket after it declined to request reservations for its shipping truck to Steam Authority – one of the island’s main freight shippers via boat
According to the Globe, the blunder appears to be the result of an oversight on the part of UPS.
Last fall, Steam Authority sent out its usual advance notice to courier firms offering them first refusal on bookings on its vessels traveling to and from the island.
They did so well-ahead of the release of summer season ferry slots to the general public, which are released in January for travel between May and October.
UPS failed to respond, and also ignored a follow-up from Steam Authority, until someone finally realized what was happening, and sent a panicked response – but by then it was too late.
Nantucket (pictured) will possibly experience a shortage of goods over the summer, which is when city dwellers usually come for vacation , if the issue isn’t resolved
UPS is the largest carrier of standard deliveries to the wealthy island community, and it typically files ferry requests months in advance along with other freight shippers. Many Nantucket stores rely on it to get the clothes, TVs, hardware and other goods they sell to residents and summer visitors.
‘It’s going to put us in a world of hurt,’ Shantaw Bloise, business manager at the Nantucket Chamber of Commerce, told The Globe.
‘I can’t imagine how we’ll be able to function just relying on DHL, FedEx, and the Postal Service,’ she added.
Nantucket is located 30 miles (48 km) off the coast of Cape Coad and 121 miles away from Boston. Travelers can take a leisurely two hour and 15 minute boat trip on one of Steamship Authority’s ferries from Hyannis to Nantucket.
After missing the priority booking window, UPS scrambled to get whatever spots were available for its trucks, said James Malkin, a member of the governing board of the Steamship Authority, which operates ferries to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.
‘But they don’t have what they need,’ Malkin told The Globe.
‘It’s going to put us in a world of hurt,’ Shantaw Bloise, business manager at the Nantucket Chamber of Commerce, told The Boston Globe
Many of the wealthy island’s retailers will have to rely on other carriers to import their private delivery orders if UPS and Steamship Authority don’t resolve the issue in May, at the latest
Stephanie Correia and her store, Stephanie’s Nantucket, which is a popular gift shop that sells glassware, bags and purses
Stephanie Correia said she relies on UPS to deliver the inventory for her Main Street store, Stephanie’s, which sells clothes and home goods. The service is crucial during the summer, she said, when her business makes 75 percent of its annual profits.
‘It’s a lifeline for business, for homeowners, for Amazon,’ she said.
Some other shop owners are looking for other ways to get their goods to the island. But some businesses and residents said they have faith the problem will be resolved.
‘Usually they’ll put another ship on’ in the case of a scheduling disruption, said Vanessa Moore, who works as a customer service representative at Nantucket Housefitters.
However, the ferry service said that there might not be a way to increase service.
‘We’re basically at the maximum number of routes right now in terms of the number of boats and the number of crew members,’ said Sean Driscoll, a spokesman for the authority. ‘There might be a couple of trips here and there we can add, but not on any kind of systemic basis.’
‘There’s no secret tunnel for the freight shippers,’ he added.
UPS is the biggest package carrier in the US but it faces potentially loosing Nantucket to rivals couriers who also deliver to the island, such as FedEx
One problem is that there has been an increase of people living permanently on the island since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, prioritizing tourism above cargo. Price of vacation home rentals are also surging due to city dwellers wanting to work remotely from the island.
‘The reservations for this year exceeded any prior year by significant percentages,’ Malkin said. Nantucket is regularly one of the most expensive vacation-home counties in the U.S., according to the National Association of Realtors.
UPS said that it will not have any shipping delivery issues to Martha’s Vineyard, 37 miles away or a two-hour-and-a-half ferry journey, from Nantucket even though both islands typically book cargo deliveries on the same form.
Retailers and local residents are expected to be the ones who are affected by UPS’ disruption the most if the issue isn’t resolved by May.
Nantucket Cottage Hospital, the island’s only hospital, counts on FedEx for supplies to be delivered. While other carriers typically ship food, fuel and large shipments.
