Five minutes with: Calmac's David Hamill

What’s your job?

I’m the interim area manager for the North Hebrides, from the tip of Skye, to North Uist, the Sound of Harris, Lewis and Ullapool. I try to be a conduit between Calmac and the communities, to make sure community voices are heard and that we communicate with stakeholder groups. Day-to-day my job is about making sure our area teams are working together. My role is to manage the portside service - I don’t have control over decisions about whether a vessel sails.

What's your background?

I joined Calmac 11 years ago. I’ve worked across various roles, from online service updates to future planning and mobile and ticket systems. I’m seconded as area manager while my colleague is on maternity leave. What challenges do you face? We’re dealing with an ageing fleet and waiting for the vessels to be replaced to give us additional resilience. Many challenges are to do with bringing things up to date as we move into the digital world. Community engagement is important for us and while there are active community transport groups in some areas, there are gaps when there isn’t enough engage ment and the local people don’t have enough of a voice. If that’s the case we want to hear from them.

What do you hope to achieve by hosting surgeries?

I hope that service users will give me an opportunity to talk to them, understand their experiences and see what might be actionable. I would like to go away with realistic actions that we can take. I don’t know what people need until they tell me! I’m looking forward to catching up with the port staff. They know who travels, where they travel and what would make a difference.

What’s the best way to share feedback?

Drop in to the surgery, or if you have specific sugges t ions, email David.hamill@calmac.co.uk in confidence.

What’s your favourite Calmac route?

There are so many spectacular journeys on the network, but it’s hard to beat coming into Tarbert on the Hebrides on a cold, still and calm day. I also love the Sound of Mull when it’s a bit wild and you get those reverse waterfalls.

And… your favourite item from the Calmac canteen?

Loaded skin-on fries with haggis and extra cheese!

Meet David Hamill at the Calmac Port Office, Tarbert, Thurs, 20th Nov