Clark Fletcher
Contributor
Shouldn't the "arrangement" be that the dive op pays the deckhand, and passes the cost on to you by charging a little more? This is how I understand it works in the rest of the world. Why not here? (Several posts already have provided some insight as to why not.) That's sort of the discussion I was trying to open.
Again, none of my business what the dive op's specific arrangement with the deck hand is. It's not my place to tell anyone else, including a dive op, how to run their business. No two business, even within the same industry, are run the same. And that's regardless of whether they're in the US our outside the US. In fact, I didn't even know the arrangement between the dive op and the deck hand even existed. When I handed my tip to the Captain I was expecting that it would be split between the entire crew (which is more typical). The Captain then immediately turned to the deck hand and gave the entire tip to him and told me the deck hand was only working for tips. Personally, I didn't have a problem with it then and still don't have a problem with it. If I did, I'd simply take my business elsewhere. And, I would have tipped the same even if I'd know about the arrangement up front.
There are all kinds of fixed costs like this, such as fuel. The boat uses the same amount of fuel regardless of how small the group of divers it takes out. One would suppose that a business with fixed costs tries to predict and average these fixed costs over many trips, so that in the end they earn a profit. Why should the deck hand's pay not be included along with fuel and other fixed costs?
Actually, fuel is not necessarily a fixed cost. We recently, booked a charter off the coast of NC (which ultimately got blown out). We booked the trip at a given price but, were told up front that we may end up having to pay a fuel surplus charge because of the refinery closings in Texas. Regardless, I see it as a waste of my time to do a due diligence on a dive op to see how they run their business before I book a charter. I book based on whether a dive op has a good reputation or whether I've had a positive experience with them in the past and whether their prices are in line with other dive ops offering the same service. Their business is exactly that - theirs.
At the end of the day, had the dive op simply increased the fee to pay the deck hand, the trip would have ended up costing me more because I STILL would have provided a tip. But, that's just me.