Assessment of safety aspects of ferry services in Terengganu

Abstract

Passenger ships became well-known or gone into service since the end of the Second World War, 1945. In Malaysia, water transportation is very important and been used as main transportation long time ago. Today, this transportation still remains in some of the countries in Malaysia such as Johar, Kedah, Melaka, Pulau Pinang, Sarawak and Terengganu. The examples of water transport that still been used are passenger boat, water taxi (bot penambang), high speed craft and cruise ship. Although the shipping industry growing faster, the safety of the ships has always been a priority as it involving human life. In Malaysia itself, incident of ferry heading to Tieman Island has leading to the death of seven passengers because of many factors such as lack of safety equipment provided, overcarried, crews' attitude and ferry's condition. The advancement in the technology must be constant with the safety to ensure this industry is reliable and instead of comfortable the tourists also will have confidence in term of safety. This study been made to assess the safety aspects of ferry services in Terengganu and the involvement of responsible parties to ensure the safety of the passengers and tourists that use the service. So this study provides primary assessment on the safety quality of ferry services to the tourists. The study also helps the involved parties the guidelines to improve the level of safety of ferry services in Terengganu. In this study, data collections consist of primary and secondary data. Primary data are collected for the first time and it is original to be in which those data are not collected by anyone else before. Interviews been made with the authority and crews to get the full picture on the operation of the ferry in Terengganu. 50 questionnaires were distributed to get response from the passengers as users of the ferry. Secondary data collections are those which have already been collected by someone else and have already been analyzed by several statistical methods. Secondary data collected from journal, web and newspaper. The information and data are collected and analyzed using easy methodology by timetable, percentage, descriptive analysis and chart built by Microsoft Office. The main problem faced by the author to make the study is monsoon season because there were no tourists at the jetty to distribute the questionnaire as all the islands were closed. For a conclusion, not all ferry owners follow the rules and regulation. The safety equipment been provided still not enough and not in a good condition. The level of crews' services is fair. In overall the level of safety aspects of ferry services if fairly satisfactory. Passengers' attitudes also become one of the issues. The inspection from the authority still can be improved from time to time. Further studies are suggested to cover safety in one type of boat only or do the study in other regions or only specialize in crews' issue.