Newsletter
Customer Newsletter Spring 2011
Good News?:
Budget Day; the Fuel Duty increase for next week has been cancelled and from 6pm tonight Fuel Duty will actually go down by 1ppl. However, who knows what the News from the Middle East Oil States will bring this evening. These events underline the importance of our transparent approach to the effect on Coach Hire prices of our fuel costs. Every customer has access to our “calculator” and today’s announcement can only reduce the risk of surcharges for the immediate future. Long may it continue.
Good News!: We are still in Business!
We are still very much in business! Our industry is in turmoil with ever rising costs (see below), falling consumer confidence and a reluctance to spend except on what are considered “essentials”. Every month seems to bring a fresh crop of operators shutting down for a variety of reasons both locally and nationally. Here at Richardson Travel our Accounts show that profitability was marginally higher in 2010 notwithstanding the lost revenue and cost of the “snows” in both January and December 2010. Every day when a vehicle or a whole fleet is just “standing” is money lost for ever, and can never to be recovered. However, investment continued in 2010 but at a lower level with just one brand new coach (we bought three in 2009!) for the main fleet and more “Util-Buses” for the Schools Division (see below). With 35 years now behind us and experience of several previous recessions, we are confident of our survival!
Bad News! “5% Inflation”, we don’t think so!
Everyone is very conscious of the effect of rising fuel prices as it has a high profile in the media. With buses and coaches only managing 6.5 to 9.5 mpg, fuel price has a significant effect on pricing. However, Insurance is another major cost for everyone as is now being reported. Car insurance is rocketing principally due to an increase in fraud and spurious injury claims. Fleet insurance is another major cost to the Company and we are not immune to some pretty fantastic claims such as “whiplash” and “stress due to being unable to drive close to buses”; (our driver was doing about 2 mph in the heavy 2009 snows and just clipped the rear wing of a car trying to dodge round him as he was doing a 120 degree turn!) Other essential items such as tyres have also jumped in price due (we are told) to commodity prices. The tyres for the school buses which were £264.00 each last year, cost £390.00 each just a few weeks ago. In spite of all this, very few if any of our customers are paying more than 5% on a year ago for their Coach Hire with Richardson Travel!
Bad News! Coach UNFRIENDLY London?
The Tourist Industry in London wants your business; Art Galleries, Museums, Shopping, Theatres etc. all want groups to visit but how do you get there cheaply and conveniently? By coach of course, because it is virtually “Door to Door” and it is environmentally friendly. Richardson Travel has invested heavily so that its whole fleet can go into the London LEZ without paying the £100.00 levy so saving the customer money BUT we now have another major drain on revenue in the form of spurious “Penalty Charge Notices” (PCNs) issued both by Transport for London (TfL) or by individual boroughs. The cost comes, not from paying them, but in administration time going through the appeals process with a 95% success rate.
Take this one; our coach (some 44 ft.long) waits until his exit is clear and then starts across a “yellow box junction” under green lights but is cut up by a car changing lanes and cannot exit the junction. Total stopped time in junction 25 seconds and all this clearly shown on TfLs own CCTV and backed up by witness statements from a very respectable organization travelling on the coach. Will they cancel the PCN? No, it has to go to a hearing in London (more expense). London is “Big Business” for the Company but for taking a Coach, give us PARIS anyday!