Rider's staff payoff turns profit to loss
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• The country's largest private bus company, Yorkshire Rider, has turned in a net loss for its first 18 months trading, in spite of making a comfortable operating profit.
The net loss of £1,651,000 comes after "exceptional payments" of £6,227,000 to its staff in return for accepting lower wage rates and conditions.
On an 18-month turnover of £90.45 million the gross profit was £21.57m. Net operating profit came out at £4.09m after administration costs.
Rider's first six-month profit amounted to around £1.5m and the company was clearly keen not to leave any balances with its owners at the time of the sale to its workforce. By effectively paying its staff in advance to accept pay reductions of up to £2,700 per person, the company has reduced its cost base in the present financial year at a time when other operators' costs are rising.
Lower rates for new staff, and a fare increase implemented in November, should place the company in a healthy trading position, now that it is in the hands of its management and staff.
Productivity also increased significantly with costs per mile reduced by 18% in real terms and bus mileage per employee improving by 26%. Mileage operated per bus hour also improved by 10%.