Tyrers Coaches celebrates 50 years in 2022. Values instilled by founder Bob Tyrer have kept the business on the right track for all that time
A family-owned independent business will undergo many challenges over the course of 50 years. This year, Lancashire-based Tyrers Coaches hits that milestone, and was able to reflect on the highs, lows and challenges it has overcome in the course of those five decades.
Some of the largest challenges, perhaps unsurprisingly, have presented themselves in more recent years.
Early days
Tyrers was founded as RS Tyrer and Son in Adlington in 1972 with just one vehicle – a Plaxton-bodied Bedford fitted with a Leyland engine – by then 58-year-old Bob Tyrer.
Prior to founding his business Bob had spent many years as a coach driver, latterly working for Jacksons Coaches at nearby Chorley. The new business proved to be a resounding success. In its first year the company turned over £7,000 (the equivalent to around £90,000 in today’s money). A second coach, being a brand-new Plaxton Panorama Elite III on a Ford chassis, marked the beginning of a fleet the following year.
According to Tyrers, the company’s first contract was to transport workers to and from the power stations at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire while it interlinked tours between the contract work when possible. According to James Robb, HR Manager, the first tour was the 200- mile journey to Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset – with hotel fees paid at £10 per head for room and board, and fuel for the coach costing 8ppl (about £1 in today’s money).
And it didn’t stop there. Bob would go to work at weekends, undertaking private hires and day trips, to help make the business a success. He retired in 1990, leaving daughter Sylvia – who had joined as Secretary in the early days – and her husband Gordon Buckle to take over.
Bob passed away in 1992.
New markets
Under Bob’s ownership, the Tyrers fleet had grown to five vehicles. In 2000, Sylvia and Gordon’s eldest son Richard joined the business while Matthew, their youngest, joined in 2009. It would mark the beginning of new roads for the company.
Under Richard and Matthew the company moved into new markets such as home-to-school work (one notable example being Runshaw College in Leyland), and continued to expand coach activities.
The footprint of the business would grow, too. The booking office for coach trips and excursions would remain in Tyrers’ home town of Adlington, but under the brothers a new depot was opened in Chorley.
Tyrers now runs a mixed fleet of some 121 vehicles ranging from 19-seat executive minibuses to 102-seat double-deckers. The biggest percentage of its work is in home-to-school transport and private hire, but the company also works with local bus services, and until 2020 it ran its own tour programme and day trip outings.
Operating over 120 vehicles is no small task, and Tyrers is a major employer with 131 staff members made up of 100 drivers, 15 engineers and 12 office staff. “Working as a close-knit team is vital for our business to run smoothly,” says James. “Thankfully our staff are loyal and reliable, enabling this to happen.”
To this day, Richard and Matthew remain committed to the business and according to James “are proud to fulfil the ambitions, values and visions of their parents and grandfather and hope to continue to do so for many years”.
Recent challenges
Having a loyal and reliable team in place has proven important during the COVID-19 pandemic. James reveals how the business took notice of that loyalty in recent years, particularly as changes were made and certain services were prioritised.
“As a business we’ve learned what a fantastic team we have in place, how everyone has stuck together as we navigate our way through this challenging time,” he says. “The pandemic has given us time to analyse the business and made us realise that diversity in the type of work we do has helped us survive this difficult period.
“We have, however, made the decision to do fewer tours and day trips and to concentrate on the other services we provide.” But that has allowed the company to focus on what’s important during times of crisis. “The pandemic has made people very conscious of cleanliness and we pride ourselves in looking after our customers by keeping our vehicles as clean as possible both inside and out,” James explains. “We are also aware that we need to be very flexible with customers and clients, such as enabling them to change dates and alter bookings.” While not following any specific strategy, the company underlines that in ever changing times it is prepared to comply with government guidance as and when it applies.
Consequently, bookings are on the up now and there have been promising months towards the end of 2021. January and February have, James reveals, been quiet as expected, but increases in private hire bookings for 2022 has the company feeling optimistic for the second quarter and beyond.
Old troubles rear their head
What predictably remains a thorn in Tyrers’ side is the issue of driver recruitment. That has always been a problem within the industry but James relates how the emergence of COVID-19 and the recent national HGV driver shortages have exacerbated difficulties.
The business had begun to take matters into its own hands back in 2018, when James set up Tyrers’ own driver training programme to recruit and train drivers from outside the industry. Back then, hiring drivers had been about getting people “with the right attitude and personality”, rather than just the necessary qualifications, since hiring drivers became more challenging within the existing pool.
Now that pool is even more limited, and the pandemic has dulled some of the advantages of having an in-house training academy. “The industry has seen several drivers forced into seeking alternative employment while feeling the effects of furlough, so the pool of potential candidates available for work has shrunk considerably,” James says. “Our driver academy was a very successful recruitment tool for us before the pandemic, but COVID-19 restrictions saw this slow to a crawl.”
Not being in a position to register delegated examiners like some of the larger bus companies, Tyrers has been left at the mercy of DVSA test centres for getting trainee drivers the qualifications necessary to start driving. Most operators will be familiar with turnaround times for DVLA provisional application times running into months, and poor appointment availability across the six separate tests that are required of candidates.
The pandemic has given us time
to analyse the business and made
us realise that diversity in the
type of work we do has helped
us survive this difficult time
“Licence acquisition has been taking 6-12 months where it used to be done in 6-8 weeks,” James adds. “We have had droves of interested applicants, but no way of getting them through the door quicker.”
Fortunately, the wheels are now beginning to turn once again. James says the academy should be back to full strength before long, and the company has worked to overcome the extra hardship by actively recruiting individuals who had been away from the industry for a number of years, and who have shown an interest in returning to coach and bus driving.
“While they may not have recent experience, they already hold the necessary licence and so can undergo a shortened ‘trainee driver’ programme with our driver trainers, without the requirement to join the long queue for DVSA test appointments,” explains James. “All assessments are instead done in-house to the same DVSA test standards before they are signed off to drive in service.”
The company is now hoping that things can soon get back to normality, with an emphasis on ensuring the pandemic does not cause any further obstructions to the business. “Our plans for the future are that the business continues to be successful for many years and that the next generation of the family will follow in our footsteps,” James says.
Standing the test of time
The recent years have certainly left a legacy to follow on from. Not only has the business grappled with the pandemic, the Public Service Vehicle Accessibility Regulations have seen the company proactive in investment; tens of thousands of pounds have been spent retrofitting the existing fleet with wheelchair lifts and new PSVARcompliant coaches have been brought in over recent years.
Ongoing discussions around a Clean Air Zone in Greater Manchester has led to further scrutiny on the Tyrers fleet, and with help from Transport for Greater Manchester and personal investment, 70% of the operator’s vehicles have achieved Euro VI standard. And next year, the newly proposed Greater Manchester bus franchising scheme looks set to bring even further change and uncertainty to how the business will look. “It will present another challenge,” James says, “but it will also present a great opportunity.”
In spite of these tests of resilience James spells out plainly the fact that the company has faced down these and four country wide recessions (in the mid 1970s, early 1980s, 1990s and the Great Recession of 2008-2009) to grow from one vehicle to a fleet of 121 today; from a handful of staff members to an organisation of 131; and from one small yard in Adlington to two additional depots in Chorley and Bolton.
“Over the past 50 years, the owners of Tyrers have shown resilience, drive, hard work and the determination to succeed,” James says. “These characteristics were instilled by Bob and passed onto his daughter Sylvia and her husband Gordon, who in turn, passed these same characteristics on to their two sons, Richard and Matthew. The number one priority going forward? Keeping those values alive and well in the family business, and providing excellent customer service.
“We also value our employees and work together with them to create a great team effort which enables us to provide this high standard customer service. Our success originally stems from the family’s commitment and belief in the business; there has been blood, sweat and tears over the years keeping the business on the right path but this has been rewarded by us being able to achieve our 50th anniversary.”
Sadly, Gordon is not around to see the 50th anniversary, having passed away in 2018 at 78. But he is survived by Sylvia, who continued to work until retiring in 2020. Though she is no longer involved in running the business, she takes a great interest in what is happening.
Richard and Matthew continue to work closely displaying the same drive passed down from their grandfather. They plan to keep the business going for many more years and hope to introduce their own children to the business to continue those family traditions.
While the pandemic has stopped the company celebrating the landmark occasion in the way the family would have wished, it hopes to celebrate on a smaller scale. That includes a Match Day Sponsorship at Bolton Wanderers FC (BWFC), where some of the company’s valued clients and employees will enjoy a day of “corporate hospitality”.
Tyrers has long worked with BWFC, and the family looks forward to celebrating the anniversary with family and friends at the home stadium.
