Lets Try A Volvo This Time!

Bye bye Scania, hello Volvo! H431 EFT is departing soon, already replaced by a Volvo B10M (L310 PSC). They look the same but the volvo has a vicious tail!! N384 PNY has also departed recently, bought by Gloucester Limos for a school contract in the Gloucester area.

Another Departure

And so H430 EFT leaves for pastures new across the Severn Bridge to Chepstow Classic Buses. It has a gearbox fault that was uneconomic for us to attend to so I don't know what the future holds for it!

Photos Number 8 and Number 9 - WX59 BWB

The new arrival just after delivery parked next to a Bristol RE for contrast! And a shot of the light and airy interior!

The New Additions

And so they have all arrived in the nick of time!

Our new MAN Centro is now registered WX59 BWB and the Ugly Ducklings (which don't look so bad in the flesh) are V682 FPO and W483 OUF. Did I mention that there is another Dart (N64 KBW) nicknamed Dino due to the fact it has arrived in Jurassic Coast promotional livery!

The Centro is now painted but still needs its vinyls fitted. It will hit the streets during the week ahead!

As well as the vehicles there are also new routes. The 130 and 131, with a 29A in the afternoons, will serve Sir William Romney's School in Tetbury.

The Ugly Ducklings

Success!

I have found two low floor vehicles under 12 years old and within our price range! The only problem is they are ugly! The Caetano Compass body certainly was not in the running for any design awards but beggars cannot be choosers!

And so on Tuesday I will head off to the Ensign used bus emporium to complete the deal! Fortunately delivery is included in the price as there are few more boring tasks than driving a bus for a long distance on the M25 and M4!

Added to the fact that our new MAN arrives next week sees nearly a fifth of the fleet converted to low floor in a week!

The Forsight Saga

And so the 620 saga is nearly at an end! The route was put out to competitive tender a little while ago causing mild distress to myself as losing it would have caused chaos! And so the only alternative to chaos was to win the route back!

And so an alternative timetable was promptly dispatched with an attractive price in the appropriate box leading to success! We have now been awarded the contract although the 620 service will now only run between Bath and Chipping Sodbury. The 29 route will now extend southwards to Yate.

The only problem now is finding appropriate vehicles! The contracts now require low-floor vehicles less than 12 years old and so the search for something in this catagory continues!

More Route Changes

Not only the vehicles are changing! September will see two new routes (130 and 131), a new variation (29A) and also changes to route 620!

Add to this the change to route 864 through Chedworth village (starting today) and I now realise that is a lot of paperwork!

The changing or creation of a route has become a tedious process! Gone are the days of excitement about how it was going to perform, replaced by the laborious process of negotiation and registration.

The change to the 864 for example was initiated by Chedworth Parish Council who, if looking at a map, wanted the route moved a little to the right! So Chedworth Parish Council contacted us and, as the route is effectively owned by Gloucestershire County Council, then contacted them. Gloucestershire County Council then contact us leading to the postal and email systems being overloaded for a while asking if we thought this was a good idea! Whether or not we considered this to be of any benefit will become less relevant as time progresses and it becomes more of a political issue! To be perfectly honest this change, being of a minor nature, meant that there was no issue to us if it happened or not however I personally don't see any possibility of this change increasing patronage! But the machine of change continues and so a change date is agreed and the paperwork may begin as follows: -

1. Fill out the registration form (4 pages)
2. Fill out the supplimentary registration form (2 pages)
3. Provide a scale map of the route (8 pages)
4. Write a route description (1 page)
5. Create a timetable (1 page)
6. Write a cheque for £60.00

And so my 18 pages must now be copied 3 times, 1 for the Traffic Commissioners Office, 1 for the Local Authority and 1 for the file. So thats 54 sheets of paper and a good quantity of printer ink!

Fortunately the Council will print the timetables!!!!!

More Vehicle Changes

My addiction to fleet changes has reared its ugly head again! M588 UBA (affectionately known as Muba) has now been sold to Ebley Coaches so that they have an appropriate vehicle for a new school contract in September.

Our new Plaxton Centro has arrived at the MAN dealership in Swindon for pre-delivery checks and should be delivered on time for September 1st!

The hired Mercedes Vario will almost certainly return in September bringing a not entirely happy association with the type to a close.

But whats next? Changes to the 620 route contract will specify low floor vehicles but there is never a suitable one around when you want one! No doubt three will come along when its too late!! So the shopping continues...

The Life Of The Parasitic Operator

An unpleasant title but an accurate description of a smaller operator that feeds off of a larger operator nearby. By feeding I mean undertaking work when the larger operator is above its capacity as opposed to consuming items of plant and machinery!

In our case we are the larger operator but are receiving a reasonable quantity of work from Ebley Coaches at the moment, both in driver and vehicle hire. I remain confused as to why such a volume of work should be available when surely it makes little sense to take on work when you know that you have neither the drivers or vehicles to cover it! I doubt that they are making any decent profit margin for this work but perhaps it has more to do with the competition for coaching work in the Stroud area?

In the main though, we restrict ourselves to covering school runs so as not to get involved in the messy business of tachographs!

Making hay while the sun shines as inevitably this source of work will dry up at the end of term!

Shopping, Shopping and More Shopping!

The cheque book has definately come out of hibernation! We have confirmed the order for an MAN chassied Plaxton Centro today and paid the required deposit. Whilst I had hoped to order two, I think a couple of low-floor, second hand vehicles would prove more prudent at this stage!

Tomorrow sees a trip to the Ensign Bus used bus emporium at Purfleet to look at some vehicles from the Capital. The cheque book will travel with me so who knows!

Whilst on this spending spree, the original office computer saw its oportunity to commit suicide and cause a moderate panic due to the fact that it is the one used for wages payments! Jim to the rescue again to provide a temporary computer whilst a new one is ordered.

Photo Number 7 - M588 UBA

Our latest vehicle but by no means the newest. Bought simply to enable the last of the Varios to leave! I don't think she will be with us for long - possibly just up until the summer holidays.

Window Shopping

An excursion to the local MAN dealership in Swindon with a surprisingly enjoyable test drive in the Palxton Centro pictured above. The search for vehicles continue but I have to say I am tempted! It looks likely that one or two new vehicles will be joining us later this year!

The Calm Before The Storm 2

And so another school term begins! We have not re-tendered for route 5 from Thomas Keble School to Miserden due to a number of reasons (which I will not go into here) but be assured that my comments have been noted by several of the involved parties! Needless to say, therefore, I am very happy that we no longer operate this service!

This has led us to be temporarily embarressed by being overloaded with drivers! But two new contracts to Sir William Romney's School in Tetbury should start in September and the commencement of driver CPC training means that they will not be under-utilised for long!

Two Down One To Go!

After my previous rant about the Mercedes Vario, I have now sold the two at the farm (R630 YOM and R816 LFV). They departed on Friday to an unknown home! It is rumoured that R816 LFV will see further service but I hold out little hope for R630 YOM.

R629 YOM is away at Swanbrook to see if they want to buy it, but as I cannot now offer the buy one get two free deal, they might! In the meantime we have M588 UBA on loan to us from Swanbrook - a standard Mercedes 814D with no computerised engine management system!

Also worthy of note is the departure of L101 HHV to the great scrapyard in the sky! After donating many parts and its rear end to its sister L118 HHV there was no further use. L101 HHV RIP.

Bloody Varios!

And now I have had enough! Cotswold Green owns three Mercedes Varios and we have another one on hire. How many of these masterpieces of unnecessarily complicated engineering were available for service on Saturday? NONE! How many were available for service today? ONE!

And so R630 YOM has been sent to the farm in disgrace, soon to be joined by R816 LFV whilst I consider what punishment should be metered out. Selling them appears to be the only practical solution although I have several volunteers should a more destructive approach seem suitable!

But what to replace them with?

Another Brace Of Darts

And so, after thawing out the cheque book, I have been off again on a little spending spree to pander to my hobby of changing the fleet every five minutes!

Two more Dennis Darts enter the fold (N464 TPR and N468 TPR), this time with East Lancs bodies.

One of these will replace L101 HHV, destined soon to make its final journey, and the other because why buy one when you can have two at twice the price!

Myself and Glyn drove the pair back from Bournemouth (Transdev Yellow Buses) today at a sedate pace!

I may also have forgotten to mention that we have sold F705 BAT to Ebley Coaches who, in their own individual style, have not bothered to paint it or remove the vinyls!

Snow & Grit

Now that I have calmed down I feel able to write about the battle that we have been fighting against mother nature. For anybody who cannot guess the result, we lost!

Snow in Gloucestershire generally only appears in quantities that hinder rather than prevent bus operation but, for what seems like the most part this month, we became a late morning/early afternoon bus operator! This applies to what I shall now refer to as the week of unpleasantness at the beginning of the month. Even where routes did operate it was not always possible to access all of the villages - Frampton Mansell, Sapperton and Miserden being obvious examples.

The gritting of the roads all but ceased during this particular week as, aparently, grit could not be delivered to the distribution depots due to high demand! This lead to the interesting situation of gritting only taking place on 'A' roads when we needed it most. Only route 54 benifitted in part from this arrangement!

Gritting has been a 'hot topic' locally during January as freezing temperatures and the consequent appearance of ice caused us nearly as much difficulty as the snow. Particular problems with the road between Frampton Mansell and Sapperton, which during winter months remains sheltered from sunlight, was avoided on occasions and claimed a victory against us when it captured the 128 service at 0800 and refused to let it pass until around 1100! With the aid of the local constabulary and the 54A service, the passengers were able to complete their journey.

The upshot of the gritting debate was the publicising of the policy that no bus route in Gloucestershire is prioritised nor is likely to be in the near future!

My earlier reference to 'having calmed down' refers to the lack of takings for the week of unpleasantness. Not a good week for Cotswold Green! We may have saved on fuel but not on wages or standing costs (rent, insurance etc) so a little financial pain has been experienced! Not to worry though as we are now catching up and will be firmly back on track by the end of the month!

Busy Busy

I know it has been a long time since I posted and have been reminded by several people recently and so to redress the balance I begin the long process of catching up with recent events!

The fleet has not changed much except for accident damage to L101 HHV and L118 HHV causing them to remain out of service for some time. L118 HHV is booked for surgery within the next couple of weeks but L101 HHV could take a bit longer!

To cover for the absence of the Northern counties twins we have had to resort to hiring a vehicle from Next Bus Vehicle Rentals otherwise known as Faresaver! We have hired a Mercedes Vario which has changed identies from V251 BNV to PSV 444, back to V251 BNV and now T436 EBD.

We have aquired another Mercedes minibus (N969 NAP) but this was bought as a non runner and will gradually disappear as it donates various parts to its sisters!