New Sea Swift boss wants to improve services
By MATT NICHOLLS
ROCHELLE Macdonald knows that Sea Swift must do better to improve its services and has vowed to engage with customers in the Cape and Torres Strait to raise the bar.
The new chief executive of northern Australia’s largest shipping company toured parts of the region last week to get a better feel for the communities and meet key stakeholders.
Dr Macdonald visited Horn Island, Thursday Island, Seisia, Bamaga and Weipa.
She acknowledged that issues in the wet season were not ideal and hoped to implement changes that would prevent similar problems.
“We are waiting on delivery of a new vessel that will solve a lot of our problems, but not all of them,” she said.
“We’ll still keep MV Trinity Bay in operation even when this new vessel arrives, hopefully by the end of the year.”
Sea Swift has partnered with trucking company Tuxworth and Woods to add a third service to Weipa in the busy dry season.
Sea Swift has held the contract to supply Woolworths for five years. Before that, the store received one delivery per week.
“When Sea Swift initially secured the Woolworths contract, we introduced a second delivery of fresh produce and since 2017 we have introduced a third (midweek) delivery,” the CEO said.
“We consider the regular delivery of fresh produce as essential to living a healthy life in remote communities.”
