A COACHING FIRM'S DEPRECIATION POLICY.
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Details of a Liverpool User's Activities. Explaining Why Vehicles Are Replaced at Regular Intervals.
REALIZING the importance of using up-to-date coaches, Imperial Motor Services (owned by Mr. E. J. Jones) of 308, Upper Parliament Street, Liverpool, have decided to embark upon the hold and progressive policy of replacing coaches after two seasons' running. ,H, in the meantime, there are any substantial changes in general design and in bodywork fashions, existing vehicles will be sold before they have run their allotted span.
This method of conducting a coaching business shows appreciation of the responsiveness of passengers to the appeal of the vehicles by which they travel, and is a striking, but not isolated, departure from the practice of so many coach owners who run their rolling stock until it is fully depreciated, and then sell it at scrap prices.
The economics of the situation arc, of course, governed by earnings on the one hand and the realization of a good price at the end of 12 months or two years, on the other hand. The coach owner is in the position of having to overtake the rate of depreciation by attracting so much extra business as to make it commercially sound frequently to change his vehicles and thus to maintain his hold on the travelling public.
Imperial Motor Services have in service at the present time two Saurer 26seater. San saloons, two Albion 26 seater Sun saloons, a Bean 14-seater•all-weather poach, a Dennis 22-seater Sun saloon, and two Studebaker 20seater saloons. At the time of ,a recent visit of a representative of this journal the firm had six Leyland Tiger 36seaters on order for early delivery, the bodies being under constrattion in the works of the 'loyal Body Corporation, Ltd., at Weybridge. TWo 28-seater coaches, a Thornycroft and a Daimler,' which have seen about six years' service, have not participated in this year's coaching arrangements, and are to be converted for haulage work.
Imperial Motor Services inaugurated B42 the coaching side of their enterprise three years ago with Thornycroft and Daimler coaches, and up to now have not considered the prospects of. all the-year-round running sufficiently . enticing to adapt their organization to test its possibilities. It is intended this year, however, to introduce services of this nature, and these will be maintained by three of the makes of vehicle . to which we have referred, namely, Saurers, Albions and Beans.
Regular daily services are run to Blackpool and to Southport. At 10 a.m. on every weekday the coaches leave the Old Haymarket booking office,
where most of the passengers for Blackpool arrange for seats, and on Sunday the departure is made half-an-hour later, this deviation from the ordinary running schedule being made owing to the decelerated. tramway services from the suburbs to the city.
The Blackpool service was commenced on March 25th, and it is maintained by the Saurer and the Albion Viking coaches. At Blackpool, .the coaches load and unload at the Talbot Road parking station and, as nearly all the . seats are booked for the through journey, the proportions of inward and outward traffic are usually regular. Arrangements are made for passengers to book for intermediate. journeys and, in such cases,. the fares charged are in a correct ratio to these for the through journey.
The average number of passengers carried per day on the Blackpool route is 50 outward and 50 insvard, but during the August holiday period the figure was near the maximum seating capacity
of the coaches. On the Bank Holiday vehicles had to be hired from other owners, and altogether 30 coach• loads of passengers were despatched, mainly to Blackpool, but also to Llandudno, Buxton and Windermere.
Although there is much competition on the Blackpool route-'Lfares being more or less stabilized at 5s. for the return journey—passengers naturally select to travel by the most attractive coaches available.
The headquarters of Imperial Motor 'Services are situated about a mile and a-half from the main booking office, and although this involves dead mileage, it is sometimes a convenience to passenger who are embarked and disembarked, when it is convenient to do so, near their homes.
The direct return journey from Liverpool to Blackpool is 98 miles, but, as the service coach makes a tour of the booking offices before going to the station in Old Haymarket, the daily mileage works out at 110. The day return fare to Blackpool is 5s., and that for the long date return is 7s.; single tickets are issued at 3s. 6d. each. Every day at 2.30 p.m. a coach leaves the Upper Parliament Street depot for Southport, a distance, including the return run, of 42 miles, and the home journey from Southport commences at 7 p.m. The return fare is as., and the average number of passengers per coach totals 15.
Imperial Motor Services are one of the firms that often contract for conveying parties of visitors to Liverpool on sight-seeing tours around the city. These journeys include in their itinerary a visit to Liverpool Cathedral, Gladstone Dock, the Pier Head and most of the other principal buildings.
The mileage on this work is generally between 15 and 20, but, as much time is taken up by halts on the way, fares have to be adjusted accordingly. The minimum charge on such tours is 3s. per passenger.
Private party work is also undertaken and, in conversation with a representative of this journal, Mr. Jones spoke very optimistically of the prospects of increased business for this department, not mainly because of the low fares, but owing to the up-to-date coaches which his firm now have on the road.
In organizing transport for big parties small-capacity coaches frequently fulfil a. very •useful role. As parties cannot always be got together to the number of 26 or 28, the coach of intermediate seating capacity is a unit in frequent demand. Fares for private parties show a slight concession as compared with those for single-seat bookings, which are as follow :
Abbey Lakes, 3s. 64.; Ainsdale, 3s.; Belle Vue, 5s.; BettwS-y-coed, Us.; Buxton, 7s.; Chester, 5s: ; Blackpool, 5s.; Clitheroe, 6s. (Id.; Colwyn Bay, 8s.; Delarnere Forest, lie.; Denbigh, 5s.; Holywell and Pantasaph, 5s.; Knutseford, 5s. ; Loggerheads, 4s. 64.; Llandudno, 8s.; Llangollen, 5g. 64.; Matlock Bath, Us.; Mobl, 4s. 6c1.; Moreeambe;Os.; Rittlain, 5s. 64.; Windermere, 10s, ; Rhyl, 5s. 64.; Rudyard Lake, 6s.; Shrewsbury, Os.
Discussing the question of fares, Mr. Jones agreed that stabilized charges were deSirable. He did not agree with the expediency of raising prices for tours during the summer months, but on public holidays, such, as WhitMonday and, August Bank. Holiday, When the demand for: seats is in excess of the capacity of the coaches, be said
that his firm, like other coach owners,could not afford to neglect opportunities. He added that on such holidays his firm operated one coach on each of the services at the usual rates, but, on all subsequent bookings. there was a reasonable premium on the ordinary fares.
A busy service is that between Liverpool and London, and an average of three coaches are sent from each terminus daily. The Studebakers, Albions, Dennis and Saurers are used on this route. During the August Bank Holiday week-end (including the Sunday) 150 to 200 passengers from Liverpool were booked, 75 per cent, of them for the through journey. Owing to difficulties with the police in the Shrewsbury district, the route has been diverted from this town, the journey being now via Warrington, Whitchurch, Uxbridge to Cartwright Gardens, London.
Details of the service are as follow: Leave Liverpool 8.30 a.m., Stratfordon-Avon 2.30 p.ni., Oxford 4.15 p.m., arrive London 6.30 p.m. The fares from Liverpool to Stratford-on-Avon are 12s.
20s. return ; to Oxford, 14s. single and 25s. return; and to London, 17s. 64. single and 30s. return. The following intermediate fares are listed :Stratford-on-Avon to -London, 10s. 64. single, 20s. return ; Oxford th London, 6s. single, 10s. 64. return ; Stratford-onAvon to Oxford, 5s. single, _US. return.
Mr. Jones give S the -average petrol returns for each &tura' and Albion Viking' 26-seater at 12 m.p.g.: and foe the Bean 14-seater at 16 M.p.g..