Rosy outlook for Black and White
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ONE of the golden rules in the world of finance is not to overstretch your resources or your organization beyond its capabilities, but to utilize all assets to the maximum. ft .is just such a policy that has allowed the Worcestershire company of Black and White Coaches to develop from a one-pump village garage into an organization carrying out an extensive range of coach operations, repair and sales facilities. Black and White are just outside the boundary of the new West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority, consequently not —so far at least!—affected by it, although I would say that little legislation short of total nationalization could floor this undertaking for long. Black and White are in the habit of diversifying and turning existing facilities to good use.
The first coach body was built on a chaindriven solid tyre chassis by Mr. A. E. Marsh in a tin hut in the village of Harvington, nr. Evesham, in 1925. After his death two years ago his sons, Michael, now managing director, and Malcolm, who handles car sales for the extensive range of foreign car distributorships that are field, formed A. E. Marsh Coaches (Harvington) Ltd. to run the p.s.v. side of the business. And the spirit of "nothing is too much trouble" permeates from the boardroom to the workshop. Most employees live locally and it is this feeling of "our" company and not "theirs" which brings drivers and mechanics out at all hours to provide the high standard of service which their customers have come to expect.
Maintenance
This was highlighted when I was speaking to Mr. H. J. Leech, the traffic manager, about their workshop facilities which have recently been opened on a commercial basis. He said operators often promised a vehicle would be available for two days and then halfway through phoned to say it was needed urgently to do a load. "Well, it's just got to be done," he said and it seems it usually is, because they have made a profit on their first three months of operations. This is taking into account that their own 20 coaches have still to be regularly maintained. The installation of the Midlands' first Bradbury 14-ton vehicle lift sunk into the ground has proved such an asset that another has been ordered.
Every form of contract hire and day-tour operations is undertaken. Out of a total 1,000 men working at Maudslay Motor Works, Gt. Alne, nr. Alcester, 700 of them are ferried daily within a 25-mile radius by Black and White who have to call on other operators to augment the fleet when private hire work starts to build up in the summer. There is a rule that overalls may not be worn and I was assured that the coach interiors did not suffer unduly.
Although they do not fare so well from the 800 children carried daily to local schools for the Worcestershire County Council education committee, other educational trips are undertaken and, indeed, Mr. Leech had just returned from taking a party from Prince Henry's Grammar School, Evesham, on a 14-day tour to Germany. Another school wants to start trips to Holland.
Go anywhere
Parties of blind and old folk are taken out for the day and excursions operated to Coventry and Birmingham theatres. Although rural tours have tended to decrease, the blossom tours in the Evesham valley remain popular. However, the high winds this spring may have damaged the blooms and thus the potential of this unusual source of traffic.
The farthest Black and White have been so far was to Rome for the Olympic Games in 1960 but they will go anywhere they are asked. For years they took the Worcester County Cricket team to away matches and although the car has captured the first team's patronage, the second team and Colts are still carried. Football excursions are popular, two or three vehicles being operated to every home match of Aston Villa Football Club. Worcester and Stratford bowling teams ask that accommodation should be booked on their behalf when they go on tour.
Although Marsh do not seek to enter the extended tour business, hotels are often arranged for private parties such as old age pensioners' holidays to the coast and works tours to holiday camps. Here the vehicles stay with the parties to take them out for the day and half-day on local sightseeing trips while they are there. Continental tours were operated 12 years ago but it was found that the net had to be cast so wide to obtain a coachload that it was decided to concentrate on private hire work.
Many day excursions are run to the seaside, as Harvington is within reach of South Coast and Welsh resorts. In the autumn an overnight stay is incorporated at Blackpool for passengers to see the illuminations. Advertising and bookings are carried out through their 12 local agents. But competition from the private motorist is causing them more and more to look for work outside their normal catchment area, I was told.
Good staff relations are maintained and a promotion from the ranks policy is pursued. Mr. Leech started as a driver 19 years ago: Mr. W. Mather, father of the present service manager, Mr. R. W. Mather, has been driving for the company 28 years, and on the service side Mr. D. Lewis has been there 32 years. It is arranged that all of the 19 drivers gets at least one holiday excursion a year but conversely they all have to do shift work.
For the past four years Marsh have been under contract to the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Co. Ltd. (Midland Red) to provide every day one single-decker for stage carriage work. Under the PTA this will continue because a new agreement has recently been signed and new work schedules distributed. They are the only private operator still doing this work—a tribute to their record of reliability in the past.
They work out of the Redditch garage on stage carriage, limited stop and express services, carrying a route card in the windscreen. . Waybills have to be submitted in the normal way and Midland Red clippies come aboard at the starting point. All shifts from early morning to the last at night have to be operated.
Each driver only takes out his own vehicle and this one-rnan /one-vehicle policy not only encourages personal pride in the coaches but helps sustain a first-class maintenance system. It is each man's responsibility to inform the service manager when his vehicle is due for its next service by noting it on a board in the drivers' mess and the driver in turn is reminded by a sticker fixed near his seat.
Different coloured stickers denote different services and the mileage at which they are due is written thereon. Folders are kept for each coach and a blackboard enables the current position of the fleet to be seen at a glance.
This emphasis on maintenance is reflected in the fleet's excellent condition—no vehicle has ever failed to pass a cot. or p.s.v.
inspection. Oil changes, previously made every 4,000 miles, are now carried out at 6,000-mile intervals because a longer-life oil is being used.
Bodywork and all except major mechanical repairs are made in the well-equipped workshop recently converted from the old coach garage. Two driver /mechanics are responsible for tyres and another two for batteries. Three full-time mechanics and the service manager look after the coaches and the lorries and vans that come from other operators who are finding that their own facilities are inadequate to bring their vehicles up to the requirements of the new regulations. Steam-cleaning and pre-test inspections are also done. The body repair shop can accommodate all sizes of commercial vehicles and the nearby paintshop undertakes complete resprays which includes giving a bake-finish to vans that can fit into the 18-ft by 8-ft oven.
Three new coaches are bought every year but with each vehicle doing 25,000/30.000 miles annually, mileages of 250,000 in their seven-year lifetime are not uncommon. The fleet consists of Plaxton and Duple bodies mounted on AEC or Bedford chassis.
Expansion has been rapid in the past few years and gone are the orchard and rockery by the old Marsh family house, which is occupied by one of the employees as are other houses owned by the company in the village. Showrooms for new and second-hand cars and two stores buildings for their spares are on the complex as well as a customer lounge and car park.
The garage won National Benzole's "Best Forecourt of the Year" competition in its class and typically it was the two women pump attendants who were chosen to enjoy the holiday in Holland which was the prize.
Nothing is done half-heartedly at this firm. They have just become main dealers for Lotus and BMW cars to add to the Lancia, Mercedes-Benz, Fiat and Volkswagen agencies they hold. They are hoping, Mr. Marsh told me, to obtain the service agency for Mercedes with a view to handling their commercials in due course in addition to the small VVV commercials which are now sold.
A. E. Marsh are set fair to meet the challenge of the future. The equipment is up to date and the staff—all union men—are trained on the maintenance side at the manu facturers in whose vehicles they specialize.
Whole sections of the workshop and stores are segregated for each make. So by exploit ing all avenues while remaining well within their capabilities this family concern has definitely not left all its eggs in one basket.