the company is a subsidiary of fosen trafikklag, and received concession to operate the ferries from 1995, after the former company gokstad did not offer as good a deal for the authorities. for the first two years traffic was performed with two leased ships. in 2003 bastø fosen received concession for operations until 2015, after the norwegian public roads administration had rejected a competing offer from stavangerske. the route is the only in the country not to receive any operating subsidies. bastø fosen used the concession extension as collateral for ordering the new ferry "bastø iii". in 2008 bastø fosen announced they were interested in increasing the number of ferries to four. the public road administration has launched plans to build a tunnel under the fjord to replace the ferries, estimated to cost ; in comparison a bridge would cost nok 15 billion. a tunnel would have to be financed as a toll road.