Plan To Rescue UPS With Tug & Barge Getting A Closer Look

The plan to rescue UPS's summer transportation to Nantucket with a tug and barge service from New Bedford got a generally favorable review Tuesday by the Steamship Authority's Board of Governors. But the board stopped short of approving the new service, asking for more details on the finances of 41 North Offshore, the company that would run the tug and barge with UPS as its "seed customer," as well as a draft license agreement.

41 North Offshore hopes to have the new service up and running by next month, and intends to run up to 70 trips to Nantucket with UPS tractor trailers to make up for the company's failure to secure summer boat reservations aboard the Steamship.

The shipping giant has been scrambling after dropping the ball on booking reservations aboard the Steamship Authority ferries for the summer. UPS typically sends two to three trailers to the island on a daily basis including time-sensitive packages like medication and food, as well as the bulk of the Amazon packages destined for Nantucket. While the Steamship has already voted to prioritize UPS on the waitlist and give it any available reservations that are left, it was unclear whether those measures would be enough.

The potential tug and barge freight service materialized earlier this month, and could be the solution UPS needs. But the Steamship, which is designated by the state as the primary ferry operator to the islands, retains control over new services and must vote to issue a license before it can get underway.

The Board of Governors, while asking for more information, appeared to look favorably on 41 North Offshore's proposal.

"I’m in favor of the concept, but I have logistical questions," said Nantucket's representative on the SSA board Rob Ranney. "Are we charging for the license fee? Are we charging per truck?"

Those sentiments were echoed by Board of Governors members James Malkin (Martha's Vineyard) and Robert Jones (Barnstable).

Steamship general manager Bob Davis also read into the record a written statement from state Rep. William Straus, who represents the 10th Bristol District, an area that includes Fairhaven and part of New Bedford. Strauss offered his support for the proposal, but only if the barge trips were for UPS packages and similar items, not other things like solid waste, garbage or recyclables coming back to the mainland from Nantucket.

"I am concerned, however, that this unique situation not result in a change in the type of items transported off-island to the Port of New Bedford," Strauss wrote. "For that reason, I strongly urge the Authority to include in any license agreement express language barring 41 North Offshore or any sub-licensees from transporting any waste, refuse, garbage or recyclables under any immediate license to be greanted."

41 North Offshore LLC, already operates tugs and barges out of New Bedford. It hopes to bring its 130-foot flat, steel-deck barge called “Thing 2” to Nantucket as many as 70 times this summer, which could include up to three tractor trailers of packages on each trip.

According to its proposal, UPS is still without guaranteed Steamship reservations for 150 to 200 of the trips to Nantucket it needs for this summer. But 70 barge trips with one or more of its trailers would cover those missing reservations. But 41 North Offshore is looking beyond the UPS situation. Its manager, Jonah Mikutowicz, said the new service would improve the transportation of materials and other items to Nantucket that may not necessarily fit into the Steamship Authority’s operation very easily. It had started exploring the concept in late 2020, well before the UPS debacle.

"Our hope with this application is that it's an opportunity to see if tug and barge transportation from New Bedford to Nantucket is a viable transportation solution," Mikutowicz said on Tuesday. "We want to see if it's a solution that benefits the entire island moving forward."

According to its license application, “The Pilot is designed with a focus on two things; first to determine if a tug and barge freight service between New Bedford and Nantucket is a viable transportation method that could supplement the existing SSA ferry service between Hyannis and Nantucket; and second, to solve the immediate need of a critical transporter of products, medicine and supplies to Nantucket (UPS), that is not able to meet all its Nantucket transportation needs using the SSA during the busy Nantucket summer season. The goal of the pilot is to determine if, as the service develops, other SSA customers that cannot reserve a guaranteed spot with the SSA will participate in the service. The service is not designed nor intended to take customers and freight traffic away from the SSA, but rather supplement the SSA at times when the SSA cannot offer a guaranteed reservation."

Loading and off-loading would happen at the Fish Island Terminal in New Bedford Harbor, and at Steamboat Wharf on Nantucket. In its application to the Steamship, 41 North Offshore LLC identified UPS as its “initial seed customer.”

The barge would not allow any passengers during the 70 trips this summer, and UPS would meet the trucks and trailers at Steamboat Wharf on Nantucket to offload them from the barge.