60 Years in
Page 57
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Mr. E. P. Bullock Looks Back on a Lifetime Spent in Road Passenger Transport
AFTER 60 years, Mr. Ernest Peter Bullock, of South Yorkshire Motors, Ltd., is still engaged in road passenger transport. From the 'eighties, when he helped his father in a small horse-cartage business, which included one cab, and worked 10 hours a-day as a railway porter, he looks back on a life of commercial adventure that has seen the complete transition of British habits.
Featherstone was the scene of Mr. Bullock's first commercial steps and he still lives there. This Yorkshire colliery community saw the beginning of the county's road passenger services in the modem manner.
When his father's health failed, he left the railway and took over the business. This consisted of a dray, which delivered rail-borne goods frin Featherstone, retail coal sales and cab work. By the careful management and hard work of the family, horse was added to horse, and carts and cabs became more numerous. Funerals were a speciality.
As the head of the clan, Mr. Bullock looked round for opportunities of expansion. The railway provided the answer. Rail transport from Featherstone to Castleford is poor. Three miles by road become five by rail, with a change, of trains and arrival at a station far from Castleford's town centre.
Instant Success: Messrs. Bullock put on a horsed char-à-bancs service at week-ends, this was an instant success. A route from Featherstone to Wakefield was added, and gradually an excursion service was built up covering all sports events and trips to the Yorkshire Dales.
In 1909. the firm were among the first owners of motor chars-à-bancs in Yorkshire. The vehicles were Karriers, and Messrs. Bullock had far more work than they could handle. Featherstone was put on the map.
Mr. Bullock next entered the retail motor trade. He supplied Mr. Sam Ledgard, now one of Yorkshire's leading operators, with his first motor char-à-bancs. Incidentally, it was the first in Leeds. The city council took one look at this monstrosity and refused it a licence. This action was a shadow of things to come. Regretfully Mr. Ledgard had to ask Mr. Bullock to take back the purchase and this was done.
In 1914 the firm's whole motor fleet was requisitioned for troop transport. The business was rehorsed, but not for long, as soon the Government needed mechanical transport to bring workers to the new munition factories from the scattered areas ill served by the railways. Messrs. Bullock were given the task, and many villages had a foretaste of the difference that road transport was to make in their standard of living.
With 1918 came the renewal of peace-time enterprise. Bit by bit the fleet was built up once more, and a motor removal service, believed to be the first in Yorkshire, was added.
Making Hay: Still looking for ways of expansion, Mr. Bullock again found the answer in the railway system. In the rail strikes in the early 'twenties, the public seized with gratitude the service offered by the road passenger operators and found it so good that when the trains ran once more, much of the traffic remained on the road.
The trams also began to feel the draught. Their decline was slower than that of the railways, but it was more complete. Tram companies became bus companies.
Wakefield became a sub-depot to Featherstone and the services extended in many directions.
Mr. Bullock claims to have introduced the first pneumatic-tyred buses (Lancias) to the area. He also bought special Albion and Leyland buses — makes which he still uses.
Municipal authorities made great efforts to extinguish privately owned road passenger services. Leeds was a black spot. By refusing licences and starting prosecutions, the council tried to keep buses off the streets. Later it became known that the council hoped to establish its own monopoly. It promoted Bills to enable it to run county-wide services to the exclusion of the men who had taken the pioneer risks and succeeded. Mr. Bullock organized his fellow operators to oppose the council, and the powers were not granted.
Before this happened, public opinion had beaten the short-sighted councillors. The outcry was such that licences were issued, although with irritating conditions.
Road passenger transport was complicated by "pirates," who ran buses at peak periods, but gave the public little real service. The large concerns were also engaged in cutthroat competition. All this was most uneconomic and Mr. Bullock compromised with his competitors, particularly the West Riding Auto_mobile Co., Ltd. Timetables were agreed and the " pirates " were gradually bought out.
Sold for £500,000: About this time, it was proposed that the business should be sold to the West Riding concern, but Mr. Bullock declined to agree. In 1928, when he parted with his interest to his brothers, the share of each partner was much increased from the figure fixed in the negotiations with the "West Riding," and in 1951, when, that company at last acquired J. Bullock and Sons (1928); Ltd., the reputed price was around £500,000.
In 1929, Mr. Bullock took over the bus service run by South Yorkshire Motors, reorganized it completely, extended its routes and amalgamated other services in it. Pontefract was the company's base and in the liquorice town, Mr. Bullock, still looking ahead, had bought large properties in the Cornmarket, where he proceeded to establish not only a bus depot, but a sales organization linked with the Ford Motor Co., Ltd.
With the assistance of Cllr. J. R. Bullock, general manager and secretary, Mr. A. S. Dobson, traffic manager, and a devoted staff, many of whom have been with Mr. Bullock all their working lives, South Yorkshire Motors, Ltd., has become a power in the county. A depot has been built at Wakefield. The fleet comprises 12 Albion single-deckers and eight Albion and Daimler double-deckers, and operates over 85 route-miles.