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Bit of a problem if he's ever in detention.
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Must save his father's firm a bit of money.
When I went to my comprehensive school it was about 20 miles from home. There were about 4 or 5 coaches from my town that went there. So the bus company would leave all but one coach nearby and one would take all the drivers back. They would then return to the buses to bring everyone home.
If this is the only coach the firm sends to the school, another driver would have to drive back to base (using expensive fuel) and then back again later. And the driver would get a lot more than £20/day.
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Really bad business model. A coach unused all day?
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That's what they used to do. I think they made good money out of the coach run. And they did not use the newest coaches for sure!
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I think this is quite common practice in the coach business. If they have no other work for those coaches, it makes sense to leave them parked near the school during the day.
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It makes sense for the school in question in the original post. They are not paying for a driver, just £20/day for the student driver. And not paying for the fuel to take the bus back and then bring it back later (and paying someone to do the driving).
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This is a remote location so there won't be much work for the coaches any where else, the odd pensioners holiday tour and maybe taking maybe school excursions is probably the only other work they get.
I doubt the school will be saving any money though, it is the coach firm which will save the money. I doubt there is much competition too as there is probably few coach firms in the area to put in rival bids.
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>>the odd pensioners holiday tour and maybe taking maybe school excursions is probably the only other work they get<<
D'ya get many odd pensioners up that way then??
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>> I doubt the school will be saving any money though, it is the coach firm
>> which will save the money. I doubt there is much competition too as there is
>> probably few coach firms in the area to put in rival bids.
>>
There are quite a few coach firms in the area actually, and it is quite competitive as the jobs are put out to tender. One of the more crucial factors is having the right buses, as the spec insists (quite rightly) that they all must be fitted with seat belts and below a certain age. The contracts are paid for by the county council of course.
Last edited by: Harleyman on Fri 2 Dec 11 at 15:27
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>> I doubt the school will be saving any money though
I phrased that badly. I didn't mean the school would save - it's the coach company saving. But I did want to point out it made sense for the bus service provided for this school. It might not be the same for another bus company or for another school service.
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>> I think this is quite common practice in the coach business. If they have no
>> other work for those coaches, it makes sense to leave them parked near the school
>> during the day.
>>
Correct. Wifey's on such a run at the moment; three buses go from Carmarthen to the college at Ffairfach, two are left there and the three drivers come back on one bus, then drive service buses. Reverse procedure in the afternoon.
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Sounds like its common in Wales then. The OP, me and Harleyman back this up.
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All the local schools in Pembrokeshire have coaches parked outside all day. Mostly battered old relics no-one else would pay to use.
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My old employers rented out half their yard to four small school coach operators. There didn't seem to be an age limit for the vehicles, with 82Y-, 83A- and 85C- reg double decker buses there, plus a few ancient coaches with 99 quid Irish plates to hide their age (ILZ, RIL etc).
The vehicles all returned to the yard in the daytime but I don't think their runs were all that far away. Good money to be made apparently, one guy bought 3x 56-plate service buses after 2 years and put them on the Leicester-Mkt Harborough route. Another paid £45k for an 03 ex-National Express coach and hired it out at weekends for student trips and Asian weddings.
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>> 03 ex-National Express coach
I know this is being pedantic, but I didn't think National Express as an entity owned any coaches. Isn't it basically a franchise? Or very similar to one.
Or at least I seem to remember reading that on here before. Might have been RP that said it.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Fri 2 Dec 11 at 21:54
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>> I know this is being pedantic, but I didn't think National Express as an entity
>> owned any coaches. Isn't it basically a franchise? Or very similar to one.
>>
>> Or at least I seem to remember reading that on here before. Might have been
>> RP that said it.
You're right, Rob. NatEx do own some coaches themselves, but most of the NatEx coaches you see on the roads will be owned (or leased) by franchisees.
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Strangely National Express do own and run a lot of bus services, but not in Manchester. They are one of the countries biggest bus operators. However oddly for their coach network they tend to tender it out. Not sure if it is a franchise but of a case of which ever company can provide decent coaches to x destination wins.
The Manchester to London route is run by a Coventry firm something like "Dave De Curty Transport" but their coaches on that route are 11 platers.
Finglands (owned by East Yorkshire Transport) used to do a lot of national express services).
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There
>> didn't seem to be an age limit for the vehicles, with 82Y-, 83A- and 85C-
>> reg double decker buses there, plus a few ancient coaches with 99 quid Irish plates
>> to hide their age (ILZ, RIL etc).
>>
I dunno about other local authorities, but Carmarthenshire recently stipulated that the vehicles must not be over 20 years old.
This much to the chagrin of one local operator, who's also a bus enthusiast and was prohibited from using his "show bus", an immaculate 1981 Duple, to earn its keep; especially since it's in far better condition than some of the more modern ones in other fleets.
Last edited by: Harleyman on Sat 3 Dec 11 at 01:21
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Keep it in the family (on the cheap !) - Robin O'Reliant
