Sunday, May 29, 2011

"Jesus Boris! How much?"

Okay, so the transfer of the nationwide company contract under TUPE went ahead with no hiccups. We are now driving a fleet of 12 coaches that are all Euro 5 compliant. The dark side of things is that statement that my old employer made about keeping the contract with the nationwide company was not financially viable.

Now consider that we were driving coaches that were Euro 3 compliant. So no problem driving into London at the moment. But the big shock is that from the 3rd January 2012 these coaches would incur a daily charge of £200 for going into London.

Well Boris, that is not financially viable BIG TIME. No wonder my old employer could not afford to carry on with it's current fleet of coaches. So Boris has helped to force a business 150 miles west of London to close it's gates.
Comments:
No Stephen, veolia did not go out of business because of boris Johnson, they went out of business because they were bankrupt!!!! Together with being a crap company in general!!! Nothing 2 do with £200 quid..... Veolia is and was a French company, and seeing as the French are an incompetent country and people on the whole who could not and would not survive without the assistance of the german and UK governments, therein lies the answer 2 your conundrum!!!!
 
Some coach companies who do one or two hires to London a year find it more cost effective to simply pay the fine but pass it into the hirer as part of the total fee. Abatement equipment can be added but unless you're doing a lot of work in London, it comes at quite a price.

Weren't your coaches coming close to their 7-year age limit on the Nation-wide network, though? All operators up and down the country, providing coaches for them will be faced with the same conundrum.

Ironically, the Nation-wide company's policy on maximum age has at least helped most of the vehicles naturally conform, i.e. the elder, non-conformers, are likely to be removed from the network in any case.
 
The Jonckheere's would have been 7 year old in January 2012 and the Plaxton Panthers in March 2012. But those Caetano Levantes from Nottingham were 56 and 06 plate but still subject to the £200 London Low Emission Zone fines in January 2012.

I wonder what Greyhound will do? Will First Bus/Greyhound invest in new coaches or abandon their network?
 
I would suggest they will stump up and have abatement equipment fitted to their exhaust manifolds to ensure compliance.

Can you believe Stagecoach is to fit Euro5-rated engines to some clapped-out Dennis Tridents that they claim are "mid-life"??

The press release claimed that this was because the company has a social responsibility to keep a watchful eye on its carbon footprint whereas in reality, the contracts on which the vehicles currently operate, will no be renewed unless the vehicles used meet Euro5 standard and refitting new engines is cheaper than buying new buses.

Normally Stagecoach would flick the Vs at any local authority forcing it to spend money, but if they walk away from the contract, First are seen as likely successors and Scots don't like to lose out to fellow rivals!
 
Anon: Thanks for that, typical of corporate press releases. Whenever a company spends money it does not want to, it claims it is because of social responsibility and claims it's pseudo-charity status.
 
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