Sunday 30 August 2009

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!

Tuesday 11 August 2009

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...