NORTH CAPE MAY — On June 4 at 6:30 a.m., the final stage of the Cape May – Lewes Ferry’s migration to its new technology platform, CarRes, occurred as the first vehicle was checked-in for the 7:30 a.m. departure from here.

To the vehicle’s driver, the only noticeable difference from the previous system was a barcode printed on his boarding card, which would subsequently be read by the handheld WiFi scanners being used by the Delaware River and Bay Authority police to notify the system that he had boarded the vessel.

The migration process had been rigorously planned and implemented over three phases to minimize the impact on the ferry’s passengers and staff. The three-phase process started with the call centre, then focused on the online booking site, and finally, culminated with port operations.

Geraldine DiNicola- Owens, chief information officer at DRBA, the agency that operates the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, in a release, credited the teamwork and professionalism of both teams for the smooth transition. “We have taken this opportunity to review many aspects of the business and implement some significant improvements that will be of great benefit to our customers,” Owens stated. “The ferry staff has quickly adapted to the particulars of the new system and the response we have had from Carus in terms of new developments and support during the whole process has been fantastic.”

Some of the improvements that have been introduced include the management of multi-trip tickets, gift voucher issuance and redemption, enhanced schedule, availability and booking routines through the website and a complete upgrade to the departure control processes including the automation of the boarding process.

Carus entered the ferry solutions market in 1998 with the launch of CarRes its Oracle based booking, ticketing, departure control and administration system for ferry operators. CarRes is a scalable solution that “offers not only fast and efficient processing of bookings for in house call centres but also facilities distribution via the clients own websites, travel portals and trade partners systems,” according to the release.

Car Res has 15 ‘CarRes’ clients in Australia, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States. These clients range in size from the smallest with 10 users to the largest with over 100 and include fellow US operators Hyline Cruises and Hawaii Superferry.