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Bus strike benefits private hirers
Page 28
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• Private, non-union bus operators are reaping a harvest from the widespread stoppage of public bus services in Fife, Edinburgh and other parts of Central Scotland. One operator in Dunfermline has said: "It's like a permanent Scottish Cup Final day."
Coach hirers are meeting heavy demands from industry, schools and hospitals to fill the transport vacuum left by the unofficial strike of some 3,000 drivers and conductors in the Scottish Bus Group.
Fife, where the strike began, has been particularlii affected and in the principal towns such as Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy, which rely on the SBG for internal transport services, shopkeepers are worried about the lack of turnover on their large Christmas stocks. At HiIlend--five miles from Dunfermline --firms like Lee Cooper and Elliott Automation, who between them employ more than 900 people, have hired coaches on a day-to-day basis--"a considerable and rather expensive inconvenience," said one spokesman. Other firms have joined forces to sponsor temporary transport.
At lnverkeithing, Lyle and Scott have mobilized a rota of 41 employees' cars to transport about 350 of their 520 employees to and from home. "We tried to organize coaches, but missed the boat. Everyone else had booked them," said their spokesman.
Pennies of Dunfermline, one of Fife's largest coach hirers, said: "We're up to the eyes with work and are refusing more than we are doing."