PTEs take a hard look at luxury coach earnings
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:0ACHING and private hire bus work must seem to be an )bvious source of revenue to any impecunious stage carriage )us operator, and all seven passenger transport executives have .urned their hands to it in an attempt to cut their operating leficits.
But last week's announcement that West Yorkshire PTE is to sell two if its loss-making coach subsidiaries to private enterprise raises the question: can coach work pay for a predominantly bus operator?
West Yorkshire is said to be losing about £500,000 per year on Hanson Coach Service and Baddeley Brothers Ltd which it bougiit in 1974 and 1976. Local press reports suggest that WYPTE paid £320,000 for the two companies, but a spokesman told me that this was based on the value of their assets at that time and he refused to say what the true figure was.
Whatever the figures, it is apparent that the operator cannot justify the retention of loss-making coach fleets when socially necessary services are under constant review, and it has still to decide how many, if any, of the coaches in its main fleet and that of subsidiary W. R. and P. Bingley Ltd will be kept in service.
At neighbouring South Yorkshire PTE, coaching, which contributes 0.3 per cent of turnover, is also in doubt, as additional stage carriage traffic generated by its low fares policy is dictating a build-up of ordinary services. It, too, may sell its luxury fleet.
Its 12 coaches are run by Travel Line, a small unit integrated with the former municipal transport department in Doncaster, and the Halfway-based Booth and Fisher subsidiary. They are utilised fully during the summer season, but a spokesman told me that SYPTE experienced "a bit of trouble" in keeping the vehicles occupied during the winter.
He said that the coaches have not been marketed actively as yet, but they could be if the undertaking decides to retain the vehicles. This will require considerable effort, as SYPTE's heavy overheads are bound to impair its competitiveness in the cut-throat coach business.
Greater Manchester, on the other hand, is very happy with its coach business. Coaching managing director Denis Rodgers — responsible for GMT's Charterplan, Warbur ton, and Godfrey Abbot subsidiaries — said: "I would be very satisfied with the profits if I owned the company myself."
He is responsible for 37 coaches and a totally separate office, maintenance, and driving staff. A further 15 coaches are run by the associated Lancashire United Transport fleet. Although owned by the PTE, the subsidiaries are treated as separate commercial enterprises and are expected at least to cover their operating costs.
Considering that GMT has been in the coach market for only six years, it has gained a substantial — and growing — share of local business, much of it from independent companies which have a good reputation. It has devoted considerable effort to Continental tours work and has developed a Manchester-Paris express service which came with the Godfrey Abbot business.
Godfrey Abbot runs two executive coaches, and a third is on its way. Mr Rodgers told me: "We intend to market these vehicles in a more formidable way in future."
He feels that coaching must be recognised as a totally different.business from operating buses. His drivers are all paid on a different grade from stage carriage staff, and are not expected to drive buses except in emergencies.
Tyne and Wear operates a similar policy with its Armstrong-Galley coach fleet which comprises 27 vehicles, none of them more than three years old. They are driven by a full-time staff and work from their own bases in Newcastle and on South Tyneside. They are backed up by 15 Leyland semi-coaches in the main fleet, but their services are used only "in times of stress."
It does not quote separate profit figures for its coach activities, but a spokesman told me: "We can see no reason why we would dispose of the coaches."
Greater Glasgow PTE made a marginal coaching loss last year, its first in the coach market, but director of operations Neil Townend told me he was confident that the venture would begin to make a profit after two years.
The undertaking has six coaches, three of them rebuilt extensively from Leyland Panther service buses, and has ordered four new Leopard coaches for the coming season. These will be backed up on short-distance hires by 20 Leyland National service buses fitted with parcel racks.
Mr Townend told me that coach work offered all staff one of the few chances for expansion in an area which has seen considerable retrenchment in recent years. "We are getting a lot of useful positive enthusiasm from staff."
For the future, he expects to build up school travel business through local travel agents and sees a day sometime in the future when coaching might be managed separately. At present, it plays too small a part to be considered as anything other than a glamorous wing of the bus fleet.
At Merseyside PTE, coaching is "an option we can keep open", according to a spokesman, but at present all private hire is done with the bus fleet. It considers that as its business is to run stage carriage services, it should concentrate on this and only operate private hires outside peak periods. It estimates that hires amount to "about one per cent" of total revenue, but South Yorkshire's figures suggest that this is an overestimate.
West Midlands PTE has built up some private hire work using suburban express Leyland Nationals fitted with coach seats and parcel racks.
The answer to the question seems to be that coaching can pay, but only if the undertaking is prepared to devote enough energy to it. A PTE cannot pay the low wages which allow some independent concerns to charge lower rates, and they bear heavier overheads than their smaller counterparts in the private sector.
Looking at Greater Manchester and Tyne and Wear's success and at Greater Glasgow's confidence for the future, the recipe for success is to aim for a high band in the private hire market. Otherwise, coaches will vanish from more fleets than just in West Yorkshire.
Alan Millar