THE PECULIARITIES OF THE BLACKPOOL 'TRADE.
Page 41
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Some Aspects of the Motor Coaching Industry at a Popular Lancashire Seaside Resort.
" THE more visitors to Blackpool the better." This phrase slimmarises the philosophy of the aveRage Blackpool motor coach owner who, 'during, the summer season, is out " to make hay while the sun shines," so to speak. Many of the local owners are shrewd and perceiving judges of human nature,. and experience has taught them that day trippers by motor coach do not provide them with any revenue worth speaking of.
Holiday-makers who travel to Blackpool by coach usually resist the appeal of a road tour of the Fylcle district, and the attraction of wonderfully cheap fares --where can they be beat ?—until about the third day, after which they become regular patrons.
It is the railway visitor to Blackpool whom the local coach owner awaits with open arms, for this type of passenger is immediately amenable to all the good things the coach owner has in store for him. Morning, afternoon and evening trips, half-day and day tours—all of them are exceedingly well patronized by the day excursionist, or by the -weekly holidaymaker, as the case may be, that is why the coach owne.i.s at Blackpool welcome the invasions by railways tourists.
In this town there are about 250 coaches licensed. In many of the garages the vehicles are now being overhauled and repainted ready for a preliminary Eastertide canter, coach owners do not welcome a March Easter, for they point out that it means they will be saddled with more expense without the possibility of any more traffic, between Easter and the Whitsun Holidays.
Hints have been dropped of the probability of new vehicles being put on the road, these being in most cases smaller coaches,which are being hi-ought into the competitive arena, because some owners are running, these vehicles at the same rates as the 20-seaters.
In the matter of rates, Blackpool owners-can defy Competititm, forilowbere in the north, are such low charges consistently made available to the public. On the occasion of our visit to Blackpool one owner was advertising a tour to Belton--&0 miles—for As. 6d. The Windermere rate has tumbled down tremendously, and the 120-mile journey can be made at 5s. and 6s. Individual owners who were interviewed were asked for the secret of these low fares.
The Old, Old Story of Rate-cutting It was the old, old story—local jealousies, etc. There is a local association,but for some reason or other its decisions on the matter of rates have not become binding. Same influential members of the trade advocate the adoption of penalties in order to bring wayward rate-cutters to boot. Others, of equal weight and influence, scoff at the idea as being impracticable, and'so the rates controversy goes on.
Blackpool coachowners do co-operate, however—and usefully ruin some mat. tees. For instance, if one owner only hooks part of a load and. a colleague is similarly placed, one hands his load over to the other, and accepts a commission for his trouble, and forthwith puts up a board in front of his vehicle advertising another trip..
A strange thing about Blackpool is that the saloon coach haS not caught on so well as the outsider might have thought' would have been the case. There, are a few owners who run a vehicle all the year round, but the demand for the totally eriL closed type, however, has been quite
negligible. One case came to notice
where the open type of body had to be substituted for a closed-in body, costing over £200; the former being the only typo to attract custom.
"People, when they conic to Blackpool, want to take the air," said one owner. " I could surprise you with the returns during an experimental week, when placed a covered-in coach on the stand beside a 28-seater of the open type. The returns for the former, I may say, did not reach 20s.," he added.
So far as the coming season's fares are concerned, it would not be prudent to anticipate the meeting of the Blackpool owners to be held shortly, at which the matter cSill be discussed, One -.thing is certain, however, and that is.fares cannot be reduced; there is, on the other hand, every justification for an increase.
Between the Easter and Whitson holidays and early in June, a few of the owners run long-distance tours for the local tradespeopts. After this, day and half-day trips become the rage, especially to Windermere, which is 120 miles distant, Morecambe and Southport. Morning, afternoon and evening trips are interspersed, and for these short runs, at is. 6d. and 2s, for a 16 or 20-mile run, owners get a much better return than on
the longer ones. .
Blackpool owners, would be well satisfied with small ProfitaL ind quick returns. As the former are questionable, they cepcentrate on the latter, L and have a very accurate knowledge of the revemie-cain
fog capacity of a 28-seater coach as coinpared with a 14-20-seater coach on short journeys, or of a 28-seater vehicle on short runs as against a fully loaded 20 seater coach on the tours.