THE MOTOR COACH FOR DAILY SERVICES.
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Points Which Should Receive Proper Consideration to Enable Success to be Achieved.
CARDINAL points which ensure success. in the operation of daily motor coach services are :—(1) publicity on lines that are regular and continuous, rather than spasmodic and hustling ; (2) promptitude and Unfailing
service ; (3) regular fares, as free as possible from violent fluctuations ; (4) absence of unauthorized halts on the road ; (5) a main booking office in as central a position as possible, and suboffices en route.; (6) stimulation of public interest....
. Running daily. services by "motor coaches to-a set destination the season through is a branch of . enterprise that makes,a big demand on the pertinaeitY, courage and optimism of the coach owner. Tosend off a'coach with only a few passengers-, when by diverting it to another run it might be fully booked up, is indeed a heart-breaking experience, but that is the price of
keeping faith with a great potential • clientele. No doubt some owners would condemn the daily coach service If it did not show signs of "picking up" in a reasonable time, but there is something of intrinsic value in the daily service, which is often overlooked, and that is goodwill.
Until a daily service becomes established and known, the vehicle owner has an uphill task to face, and the only weapon that an be used to dispel difficulties is that of publicity. In advertising a daily service from a big centre of population to a favoured venue, the coach owner must not forget that he is building up goodwill. He must announce a definite and clearcut policy and make it apparent that the coaches will run, rain, hail or snow, no matter how many or how few passengers turn up. He must not on any account break faith with the public.
No coach owner running Is daily service must expect to be allowed to monopolize the route he has chosen, but according to the vigour with which he faces competition so will the extent of his success become manifest. 13y advertising on the hoardings, on theatre curtains, in theatre and football programmes, railway guides, and in the daily Press, etc., he will certainly attract public notice and thus secure immediate or potential benefit. His company's name becomes associated with the daily service to --, and When people are thinking of going to this place, it immediately occurs to them that a coach leaves their town at a certain time every day. This is the fruit of continuous advertising.
What deters many a coach owner from the daily service venture is the knowledge that his competitors are regularly running vehicles to the resorts which he thinks offer the most promise. This is inevitable, but a fact that must be faced. Trade rivalries must always submit to the verdict of the public. The reliability of the daily service should be its chief virtue, and the guarantee of transport strictly to time-table must always be a "bull" point to the man in the street out for a day's pleasure, with time to spare at the journey's end. Competitors are sometimes allies of the daily-service coach owner. Frequently it has happened that when their own private bookings have been insufficient for the journey, they have transferred them to the service company on a commission basis, rather than run a small coach at a loss. Mutual arrangements as to the working of routes would seem desirable amongst coach owners if the 'Mashing of journeys is to be avoided, and a better element of stability created. Facilities of the kind referred to do ensure regular employment for vehicles and, in industrial centres, save the worry experienced in drawing up attractive day-to-day programmes.
Fares lists should be sufficiently elastic to attract one-way passengers and holiday-makers. Hence the suggestion, that a schedule be prepared quoting fares for (1) eeturn day trips; (2) long-date return journeys; (3). single journeys.