SME bus operators have a strong future by continuing to address passenger demands and market gaps that large groups do not, former Transport Minister Steve Norris told the ALBUM conference in Blackpool on 12 May.
In a keynote session, Mr Norris highlighted the right timetables, right vehicles and right staff as keys to the SME segment’s future success in a position that he believes could extend to demand-responsive services in rural areas.
In an address that leaned heavily on his government experiences in the 1990s and later with London operator Capital Citybus, he cited local knowledge and faster response times as counting in those businesses’ favour, at one point referring to minibus entrepreneur Harry Blundred – who died in 2017 – as “almost a patron saint of private operators.”
“He spotted a market and went for it,” says Mr Norris. “He made a lot of money out of it, and we were all very pleased that he did.” Although the former minister rejects the ongoing bus franchising movement as being too expensive, he is equally dismissive of ‘bus wars’ in the deregulated environment.
“There is still an enormous amount of potential in more rural communities and small towns and cities for operators seeing a gap in the market that the majors either are not interested in, or have not picked up on,” he adds.
Some of Mr Norris’s assertions were robustly challenged by industry members. Craig Temple of Connexionsbuses and Charles Sanders of Sanders Coaches aired concerns that SME operators and their knowledge will be pushed out by bus franchising. Another suggested that supposed market gaps exist because they are unprofitable to fill.
While Mr Norris “was not suggesting the market is easy,” he told the conference that artificial intelligence will be “a game-changer” for opportunities at SMEs.
Reading Buses Chief Executive Robert Williams, part of a question-and-answer panel, broadly agrees with that, observing how AI could open doors to those businesses that were previously the preserve of large groups. “It might make small, independent operators more competitive in bidding for future work,” Mr Williams adds.
