The percentage of sailings system-wide that departed on time improved quarter-to-quarter by 1.1%: 96.2% on time in the fourth quarter of FY 2011 compared to 95.1% in the previous quarter. On-time performance compared to the same quarter in FY 2010 improved by 8.0%. The average sailing delay improved from 3.3 minutes of delay for the fourth quarter of FY 2010 to 2.2 minutes of delay for the fourth quarter of FY 2011. The median sailing delay for the fourth quarter of FY 2011 was one minute, meaning half the trips had less than one minute delay (or no delay), and half had more.
Changes in on-time performance between the fourth FY quarter of 2010 and the fourth FY quarter of 2011 for selected routes:
- San Juan Islands (Domestic) Route: The improvement in on-time performance on this route can be attributed to service schedule adjustments and better vehicle loading and unloading capabilities for vessels serving this route.
- Edmonds - Kingston Route: The improvement in on-time performance can be attributed to a revised ferry schedule implemented in 2011.
- Port Townsend - Coupeville Route: The decrease in on-time performance can be attributed to the new larger vessel serving this route, the M/V Chetzemoka. This vessel has a much larger carring capacity (including the ability to carry over-sized commercial vehicles) than the vessel that was previously serving this route. The larger capacity has lowered on-time performance due to the increased amount of time it takes to load and unload more and larger vehicles.
A trip is considered delayed when a vessel does not leave the terminal within 10 minutes of the scheduled departure time, an international standard. The quarterly average delay is the average delay past 10 minutes of the scheduled departure time. WSF calculates its on-time performance using an automated tracking system on each of its vessels that records when a vessel leaves the ferry terminal.