Court carve-up for Yeovil firm's routes
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k TRAFFIC court battle is looming over who takes over from a ;omerset operator who is selling out in the face of a 30 per cent wage claim.
Western National and 3rutonian Bus Company have ;ubmitted counter applicaions for new services around raunton in place of Hutchings Ind Cornelius routes which ire being abandoned with the and C business on May 31.
This follows the Yeovilrased Vincent Group's deci;ion to sell the H and C fleet of .7 vehicles and premises at iouth Petherton, rather than neet drivers' demands for 22 kr 29 per cent wage rises for ;tage carriage work.
As a member of the Coach )perators' Federation, it honrured its recently-agreed rtrage award to coach drivers, )ut rejected Transport and 3eneral Workers Union ;laims that stage carriage drivers should receive the same rate.
H and C general manager Stanley Baker told CM that this would have forced the company to seek a 33 per cent fares increase on top of an eight per cent rise granted last January by the Western Traffic Commissioners.
Most of the 19 H and C employees have already found new jobs in the area, and buyers have been found for at least 11 of the modern vehicles. Those buses needed for surviving contracts are being kept until the end of the month.
Mr Baker said that profits have remained static for five years, but wage costs have doubled, and the price of new vehicles has trebled. He singled out a new Duple-bodied Ford R1014 which has just been bought for £27,000. An identical bus cost £9,000 in 1975.
Somerset County Council offered to consider subsidising H and C's activities, but these overtures were rejected speedily.
It has arranged for South Petherton-based Vera Gunn's Safeway Services to apply for H and C replacement services around Yeovil, but is not saying whether it is supporting_ Western National or Brutonian in the battle for the Taunton routes.
A Western National spokesman told CM that it could make no move now as the Brutonian application has thrown everything into the melting pot. It does not intend to buy any of the H and C buses, some of which are National Bus standard Bristol/ECW products.
The Coach Operators' Federation wage negotiating machinery was singled out for praise in the recent Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service report on the coach industry.