Anyone who has driven onto a BC ferry knows the moment. Keys in hand, bag by the door, and one question: is the 3:00 worth the drive, or will we sit through two sailings at the terminal? The answer exists. BC Ferries publishes deck space for every sailing. But it lives in a table built for a desktop, and it tells you where a sailing is, not where it is going.
This fall we shipped our answer. Next Ferry is a free app that reads the same BC Ferries data and turns it into something a driver can act on in three seconds. It’s our first product for the public, and it’s live now at nextferry.ca.
Information Versus a Decision
Every project at Leap starts with the same question: what does this person need to know right now? For a ferry traveller, it isn’t a percentage. It’s a decision. Leave now. Take the 2:00. Don’t bother until tonight.
So Next Ferry opens on the only headline that matters: how many routes have a wait at this moment. Below it, every major route on one screen, from Swartz Bay and Tsawwassen to Horseshoe Bay, Departure Bay, Duke Point, Langdale and the Gulf Islands. Each row carries a bar, a number, and one line of advice. Space available. Quieter at 14:00. Likely full by 10:40.
That last line is the piece we’re proudest of. Next Ferry watches every sailing fill through the day and shows the slope. A sailing at 70% could be full in twenty minutes or hold room until it leaves. The number tells you where it is. The trend tells you what to do.
Alerts Without an App Store
Tap any sailing, choose 80%, 90% or full, and your phone tells you when it gets there, or if it sailed with room to spare. There is no app to install and no account to create. On Android and desktop it works straight from the browser. On iPhone, Add to Home Screen gives Next Ferry an icon and turns on alerts.
We think of it as an app that doesn’t need an app store. For a tool you reach for a few times a month, that’s the right shape.
How do ferry alerts work on iPhone?
Open nextferry.ca in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. Open Next Ferry from that icon, pick a sailing and tap Alert me. iPhone only allows web notifications from apps on the Home Screen, which is why that one step matters. Android phones and computers can turn alerts on straight from the browser.
Who It’s For
Long weekend travellers. The family leaving Vancouver on the Friday of Thanksgiving, when every sailing to the Island fills by lunch. The couple heading home from Salt Spring on the Monday who would rather know now that the afternoon boats are gone. The parents on the Sunshine Coast with a hockey tournament in the city. The hotel front desk that gets asked about the ferry fourteen times a day.
None of them want to read a table. All of them want to know when to leave. Next Ferry was built for that one moment, and it stays out of the way the rest of the time.
Is Next Ferry affiliated with BC Ferries?
No. Next Ferry is an independent project from Leap, and every screen says so. The deck-space figures are the same ones BC Ferries publishes, delivered through the community-run bcferriesapi.ca and refreshed every minute. What Next Ferry adds is the reading: the trend, the quieter sailing, the alert. We always recommend confirming at bcferries.com before you travel.
Try It on Your Next Crossing
Open nextferry.ca on your phone before you leave the house. If you ride the Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen route on a Friday afternoon, that’s the best demonstration of what the trend line can do. Local businesses that serve ferry travellers can sponsor a screen.
And if you have a dense table of your own that your customers deserve to understand in a glance, that’s the kind of problem we love. Hire our team and let’s talk.