By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.
Accept
routeonerouteonerouteone
  • News
    • Show all
    • Awards & Events
    • Deliveries
    • Environment
    • Exhibitor News
    • Euro Bus Expo 2024
    • Features
    • Legal
    • Minibus and minicoach
    • Operators
    • Opinion
    • People
    • Suppliers
    • Vehicles
  • Vehicles
    • Find a Vehicle
    • ZEV Comparison Tool
    • Sell a Vehicle
    • Vehicle Seller Dashboard
  • Insights
  • Careers
  • Events
    • British Tourism & Travel Show
    • Euro Bus Expo
    • Innovation Challenge
    • Livery Competition
    • routeone Awards
  • Advertise
  • Contact
    • Share your news
    • Subscribe
    • Update Subscription Details
  • Latest Issue
  • SIGN UP
Search
© 2024 routeone News. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: BusyBus: A difficult 2020 leading into a hopeful 2021
Share
Font ResizerAa
routeonerouteone
Font ResizerAa
Search
  • News
    • Show all
    • Awards & Events
    • Deliveries
    • Environment
    • Exhibitor News
    • Euro Bus Expo 2024
    • Features
    • Legal
    • Minibus and minicoach
    • Operators
    • Opinion
    • People
    • Suppliers
    • Vehicles
  • Vehicles
    • Find a Vehicle
    • ZEV Comparison Tool
    • Sell a Vehicle
    • Vehicle Seller Dashboard
  • Insights
  • Careers
  • Events
    • British Tourism & Travel Show
    • Euro Bus Expo
    • Innovation Challenge
    • Livery Competition
    • routeone Awards
  • Advertise
  • Contact
    • Share your news
    • Subscribe
    • Update Subscription Details
  • Latest Issue
  • SIGN UP
Follow US
© 2024 routeone News | Powered by Diversified Business Communications UK Ltd
- Advertisement -
-
routeone > Features > BusyBus: A difficult 2020 leading into a hopeful 2021
FeaturesNewsOperatorsTop StoryTourism

BusyBus: A difficult 2020 leading into a hopeful 2021

Tim Deakin
Tim Deakin
Published: December 11, 2020
Share
BusyBus looks towards a strong 2021
SHARE

The need to be in position to capitalise on a coming year’s trade has never been more important than it is as 2020 draws to a close. That is easier said than done for many coach operators, who have seen this year turn into a write-off. Cheshire-based BusyBus is among them. It saw a “tsunami” of refund demands as the pandemic began, but it has also worked hard to leverage support packages.

Contents
Refund demands bring major consequences for BusyBus‘Vertical’ August recovery gives hope for 2021 seasonKnowledge and relationships are key for BusyBus

BusyBus runs a small minicoach fleet on what Managing Director Peter Rosenfeld describes as “immersive tours.” Until March it relied heavily on cruise passengers. That market was wiped out immediately and indefinitely. Refund demands followed.

“Customers in the United States were particularly aggressive. We did not get empathetic requests. We got demands stating that if their money was not returned within 24 hours, our reputation would be destroyed on TripAdvisor,” says Peter.

BusyBus quickly saw £200,000 flow out of its bank account. With hindsight, Peter believes that was the wrong approach. Instead, it should have offered vouchers that could be redeemed for cash if they were unused after 18 months. While refunding hurt, it did bring benefits of a sort. BusyBus was cited as having behaved in an exemplary manner.

Refund demands bring major consequences for BusyBus

Despite BusyBus’s utilisation of the Coronavirus Job Support Scheme, such an outflow of funds came with consequences. What had been a business with strong cashflow was put in an awkward position. But work undertaken as soon as the pandemic broke had already delivered some mitigation.

Peter Rosenfeld, BusyBus Managing Director
Peter Rosenfeld, BusyBus Managing Director: Refunds were demanded, not asked for, and that created cashflow strain for the Cheshire operator

“We are a tour provider and listed as such by Companies House. That puts us in the visitor economy for the purpose of grants. We were able to take advantage of that funding thanks to our standard industrial classification (SIC) code.”

He believes that SIC categorisation goes some way to assuaging a view that the coach industry’s lack of eligibility for earlier non-discretionary visitor economy grants was down to a ‘postcode lottery’.

BusyBus’s experience with Cheshire West and Chester (CWAC) Council indicates that SIC coding is key to the grants process. “CWAC was excellent. Money was paid quickly,” says Peter. That has continued in the later stages of the pandemic.

But he also gives credit to two tourism associations that BusyBus is part of. Marketing Cheshire and VisitLiverpool have provided consistent accurate and helpful advice on what grants have been available and how to apply for them.

A good relationship with its bank also helped BusyBus to secure money through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme. Those funds still sit in its bank account. But they solved the cashflow problem and have prevented any potential issues with meeting financial standing levels.

‘Vertical’ August recovery gives hope for 2021 season

Grants bookended a brief but fruitful summer restart for BusyBus. It is now again shut down, although Peter explains that such a situation is largely normal for the winter period. But recovery in August was “vertical.” That gives hope for the same in Q2 2021, subject to the administration of vaccines.

Something that BusyBus had to quickly understand when business restarted was a changed demographic. A lack of international tourists meant, and for the medium term will continue to mean, that the product needed to change.

“Our trips are immersive sightseeing tours. They tell a story. It can be almost Disney-like. We get lost in Snowdonia, chase sheep around fields and so on. That approach does not work with UK customers. It is not amusing to them,” says Peter.

BusyBus Iveco minibuses
BusyBus has strong hopes for domestic tourism in 2021. They have been formed off the back of a ‘vertical’ recovery for the business in August 2020.

“As a business we struggled for three or four days. Working out how we could convert a day trip that is designed around visitors from the United States to something that satisfied the British market left us tearing our hair out. We upset a few people, but we quickly captured the audience.”

One thing that could have hamstrung BusyBus was the size of its vehicles. They seat 16. It utilised onboard bubbles that allow it to carry between eight and 14 passengers, depending on the size of each bubble. That approach was rubber-stamped by both the company’s insurers and the Good to Go scheme.

Knowledge and relationships are key for BusyBus

Peter is eager that his speaking about BusyBus’s success in obtaining funding is not seen as a gloat. As a tour business that operates its own vehicles, the company is lucky that its SIC classification put it in scope. It could just as easily not have been. He also believes that how some grants have been allocated is “grossly unfair.”

Busybus has worked to leverage business relationships and memberships of regional tourism groups. Not all the latter have delivered. Marketing Cheshire and VisitLiverpool are “excellent,” but the performance of another such organisation was dire.

“At the beginning of the crisis the key was to understand your business’s circumstances and then absorb information. Grasping how the public sector works is also important. That is not always easy.”

Refunding £200,000 over a short period was immensely stressful for a small business. But BusyBus, like many of its peers, believes that 2021 should be a strong year for domestic tourism – for both itself, and for the wider coach industry.

Share This Article
Facebook LinkedIn Threads Email Copy Link
ByTim Deakin
Tim is Editor of routeone and has worked in both the coach and bus and haulage industries.
Previous Article Solar panels for coach and bus applications Solar panels for coach and bus: What are the benefits?
Next Article National Bus Strategy to be delivered in Q1 2021 ‘National Bus Strategy must deliver proposals of substance’
- Advertisement -

Latest News

Temsa HD12 and HD13 delivered to Cresta Coaches under Asset Alliance rental deal
Temsa pair join Cresta Coaches on Asset Alliance rental agreement
Deliveries
Go-Ahead London – Managing Director
Careers Jobs
andy burnham tfgm £15.6 billion (1) The funding announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves today (4 June) has been allocated to several combined mayoral authorities to use on rail, tram, road and bus infrastructure. Transport for Greater Manchester revealed today that part of the £2.5 billion it will receive will go towards making the Bee Network fully battery-electric by 2030. An as-yet undecided portion of that will support a planned investment in 1,000 new zero-emission buses over that period, the mayoral authority said. That is part of plans to build the UK's "first fully integrated, zero-emission public transport system", with trams and trains also set to benefit. Liverpool City Region's already announced BRT system is among the projects to which its £1.6 billion will be allocated. Under those plans - due for realisation by 2028 - a high-speed network will be served by articulated buses which are modelled on the 'Glider' in Belfast. It is due to link Liverpool city centre with John Lennon Airport, and Liverpool FC and Everton FC's respective stadia along three routes. Although the model of bus has not been confirmed, a Van Hool Exqui.City on loan from Belfast was last year used as a demonstrator. That 18m vehicle can accommodate around 30% more passengers than a typical bus and has three sets of double doors. The funding will also go towards buses elsewhere in the city as the region heads towards franchising services by 2027. Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram with a 'Glider' which was on loan from Belfast last year - an example of the sort of bus which could serve the new BRT Bus services in the East Midlands region will be boosted by the funding, thanks to the £2 billion handed to it today by the government. Some of that allocation will be used for a rapid transit network on the Trent Arc between Nottingham and Derby. Between the two cities, the Freeport, Infinity Park Investment Zone and Ratcliffe-on-Soar will also benefit from the improved bus services. South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority's newly announced commitment towards bus franchising has been boosted by £350 million in funding as part of that region's allocation. The funding for West Yorkshire will help build new bus stations in Bradford and Wakefield. Likewise, the Tees Valley Mayoral Authority will put its sum towards a new £15 million bus station in Middlesbrough. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander says: "Today marks a watershed moment on our journey to improving transport across the North and Midlands – opening up access to jobs, growing the economy and driving up quality of life as we deliver our Plan for Change. "For too long, people in the North and Midlands have been locked out of the investment they deserve. With £15.6bn of government investment, we’re giving local leaders the means to drive cities, towns and communities forward, investing in Britain’s renewal so you and your family are better off."
TfGM’s all-electric bus plan boosted by new £15.6 billion package
News
Local Transport Minister opens First Bus electric depot in Hengrove
Local Transport Minister opens First Bus electric depot in Hengrove
Bus
- Advertisement -
-

routeone magazine is the indispensable resource for professional UK coach, bus and minibus operators. The home of vehicle sales and the latest bus and coach job vacancies, routeone connects professional PCV operators with complete and unrivalled news coverage.

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • GDPR Policy
  • Sustainability
  • Advertise
  • Latest Issue
  • Share Your News
routeonerouteone
Follow US
© 2024 routeone News | Powered by Diversified Business Communications UK Ltd