End of monopoly game
Page 15
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THE TIME he had packed his gs and vacated London for the mmer recess, Transport ?cretary Norman Fowler had It Britain's public sector busen in no doubt where they bang.
They will play their part in an :onomy in which no mercy will displayed towards an even ghtly flabby nationalised inJstry, and they must expect )nsiderable weakening of ist monopolies, writes ALAN ILLAR.
While the House of Commons insport committee's thoughts I privatisation will probably reive holiday consideration, iw might the private sector Jscle in on big-time bus operain?
The last few weeks have seen e pro-competition line un!dined by the propulsion of the onopolies and Mergers Cornission in the direction of Car1 City Transport, West Midnds PTE, Bristol Omnibus impany, and Trent, and it will very surprising if the Governent does not act on its dings.
Monopolies have already en swept away in Cardiff and !wport, and it is no secret that Fowler is on the brink of ing the same in Glasgow, iere the state of confusion and or deal for the public is of ite monumental proportions. Vid the full and final blast of rrent reality has come with Mr wler's overturning of inspecs' recommendations that in dependent operators be refused licences for services which compete with London Transport and a National Bus subsidiary.
The granting, by Mr Fowler's decree, of a licence to Lightgray of London for a Heathrow Airport-West London express service, was an obvious candidate for the commercial approach. The airport is a growth point for coach travel, and LT had already made clear that it regarded its Airbus services as strictly corn mercial. _ On the other hand, National Bus, which has begun to explore the Government's idea of injecting private capital into it, was taken by surprise when Yeowart's Coaches got their licence for a stage service in Workington.
Cumberland Motor Services, the NBC subsidiary involved, clearly sees great dangers for itself there, and its general manager, Peter Townley, wasted no time in telling Mr Fowler he had made a big mistake.
"We can't understand why fardistant Whitehall has chosen this time to allow a private operator with no interest in anything but profitable routes to come into the marketplace and cream off those passengers who help us maintain the whole of our network," he complained.
On the other hand, the Government line, is that the disadvantages of allowing an operator like Yeowart's on to the scene will be minimised if Cumberland and the local authorities which subsidise it "approach the competitive situation constructively".
Clearly, that does not mean drafting buses into Workington in a crazy attempt to drive Yeowart's off the road. What it does mean has already been spelled out by both Mr Fowler and Kenneth Clarke, his Junior Minister.
When Mr Clarke addressed the Confederation of British Road Passenger Transport's annual dinner in London this year (CM, February 28), representatives of the established operators clearly were disturbed. "Where new demand appears, we must not allow those who have the enterprise and ability to meet it to be discouraged," he said.
The industry had to be forward-looking, aggressive, and adaptable to change. Money would not be poured into it, and Mr Clarke warned: "It's no good just lamenting the sad decline of bus traffic. Government can't give more and more taxpayers' money to subsidise the operators whose buses carry fewer and fewer passengers."
Cries of "doesn't the Government care about us?" echoed around the corridors of bus power after that speech. Yet how many bus managers can honestly say that they are aggressive, forward-looking, and commercial in their approach?
How many would survive five days, let alone five years in the supermarket or fast food business if they applied their present "commercial" policies to those businesses?
How many really set out to follow the Laker principle of putting the maximum number of bums on seats?
I'm not talking so much about coach operation, where National Express has risen commendably to the challenges of the 1980 Transport Act and, apart from seeing off most private sector competition, now displays fares and schedules on the coaches which now carry undreamt of loadings on their main routes. It's the bread-and-butter stage services which let the side down.
If a run-of-the-mill busman was let loose on a supermarket, is it too unkind to suggest that price labels wouldn't appear on goods because of the inconvenience of applying them? In any case, he would tell you, half of them would be removed by vandals.
Would lists of prices appear instead in a centrally located directory published like a time
table in an unintelligible forn Would the shop be cleanel And would ill-staffed check-o points be surrounded by gueui of customers trying to pay on the exact money to an offhar assistant who gives no change Turn that on its head, and yc have a way out for busmen wt want to satisfy the Gover ment's aims. The supermark approach would find every bt stop carrying an easily reE timetable and map diagram sta ing where buses go, at wh times, and what the fares are.
And it is no use saying th. passengers must be educated I read a tabular timetable. Tai don't wag dogs in a real wadi and it is up to the operator I make his service and all its tral pings as attractive as possible t the potential customer.
The pseudo-American "have nice day" approach of the fa: food shop might be going to far, but there really is immens scope for improving the indul try's public relations. PR isn just about keeping the pres happy and commissioning ac vertising. It is, as the name in plies, about keeping good relE tions with the public, right dow to the finest degree.
More bums might well fi seats if drivers were selecte according to their ability to deE with the public, rather than jUE their apparent skill behind th wheel. And the CK Coaches ap proach in Cardiff, where conduc tors are employed specifically ti help passengers on and oi buses with prams and shopping is an example to all.
So too is some coacl operators' practice of identifyinc drivers' names. A name on : lapel badge builds a bridge be tween driver and passenger, an it gives the passenger a bette chance of identifying an offen sive driver.
All that might sound ridicu lously simple, and it is. But th( days of monopoly are at an end like it or not, at least for the res of this Government's life, and i is simple pro-customer ploy: which will keep all operators ir business in a brutal world.
Kamikaze pilots who indulg( in commercial revenge by draft ing in buses with the expres: purpose of killing off indepen dent competitors may not live tc fight another day.