After a decade on the road and despite branching into private hires, GSAL Transport remains focused on its mission of providing quality school services
If you want something done right, do it yourself. The commonly used motto sums up what led to the creation of GSAL Transport this very month 10 years ago and it is one that continues to stand it in good stead.
Serving The Grammar School at Leeds’ transport needs as well as private hires, it is a very rare example of a coach operation owned by a school. As GSAL Transport celebrates the 10-year milestone, its Director, Paul Womersley, looks back on the circumstances which led to this unusual set-up.
Paul has been Director of Estates at the school since 2011, when he took responsibility for the school bus service, which was then operated by contractors.
It was a very fast learning curve because this is like nothing else in the PSV industry – David Arkell
“We had issues with the quality,” he recalls. “For a period of time, we were running with two contractors rather than one. Trying to manage all that was nigh on impossible and a constant pain. We were trying to manage routes and fares.”
In 2015, the school therefore decided to apply for an O-Licence and lease six vehicles, covering half the school service itself as a trial. A change of circumstances involving the contract with an operator running the other half led the school to decide to take it all on itself at very short notice.
Fortunately, the school heard around the same time that its application for the O-Licence for the other six vehicles had been granted. Within days, the school had arranged the lease of six more vehicles and organised the complete service in time for the pupils’ return after half-term.
Paul took on experienced Transport Manager (TM) David Arkell in July 2015 and GSAL officially launched as a business at the start of the new academic year.
David, who gained his TM qualification in 2002 and who is also Managing Director of TML Travel Group, says: “Paul rang me and it sounded a very interesting project, but it was a very fast learning curve because this is like nothing else in the PSV industry.
“It’s very much a bubble on its own within the industry; there’s nothing like it. We had only about six weeks to pull it all together.”
The operation gradually grew and GSAL’s fleet now numbers 16 vehicles. The expansion has seen them take on private work, including for other schools and events such as weddings.
General Manager Terri Walker explains it recently arranged transport for two former The Grammar School at Leeds pupils, who wanted a GSAL coach for their wedding!
School service takes precedence
However, central to the GSAL ethos is that the school runs take absolute priority. “Our USP is that our focus is on the school service, getting the kids into and away from school,” says Paul, highlighting that the result is something that could not be guaranteed from a contractor.
“Whatever we do in between time, the buses have got to be back to do the service. We do a lot of third-party work for other schools, but only if it fits in that window. We use this private hire work as much as we can to assist with the fares because we do charge.”
Where the school’s own away trips can’t be fulfilled by GSAL itself due to clashes with the school run, it contracts in other operators, usually York Pullman in York.
Bold step leads to success
The service is popular, says the team. GSAL transports 800 pupils per day – nearly 40% of the school. “Being one of the premier schools in the country, we want it to be a premier service,” Paul says. It also runs two free shuttle services from about a mile away to reduce traffic caused by parents on the drive leading up to the school.
GSAL is proud of its Operator Compliance Risk Score – currently 1.625, although “it has been lower”, says Paul, who adds: “We’re obsessive about the safety of the buses, safety of the kids, the quality of the drivers. We do not compromise on anything.”
Taunton School Transport Services in Somerset is another known example of a coach hire firm belonging to a school, but the rare nature of the set-up has led to enquiries from others considering going down the same route.
“We keep getting approaches from other schools asking if we can advise them on doing it and our advice is always, ‘Don’t!’” Paul laughs, alluding to the “risk management” issues that he did not foresee before starting it up.
However, while the move was driven to a degree by circumstances, he believes the success of the operation has justified the decision. “I think, if we could find a contractor that could run it as well as we could run it, we’d probably do that,” he says.
“This sounds very pretentious, but we couldn’t find a contractor that runs it as well as we do.”
PSVAR, ZE and schools VAT
Having recently bought five coaches to cut down on leasing costs, GSAL has stuck with only PSVAR-compliant vehicles. David, who organised his first coach tour aged 14, believed it was important to take that route rather than waiting on exemptions.
“We tend to need it more on the private hires than the school runs. We do work for a lot of primary schools, who are asking for wheelchair accessible.”
As for the transition to zero-emission options, Paul says: “It’s something that we aspire to, but electric coaches are just not ready yet.”
David adds: “I’m quite a fan of the hydrogen route. I think there are some interesting things round the corner but it’s going to present a whole different set of challenges.”
On the controversial topic of schools using Section 19 exemptions to allow what could be professionally unqualified individuals to drive minibuses, Paul and David agree schools would not be able to run school trips without that clause.
“If [the government] did say to schools you’ve got to have a full O-Licence to operate, I’m not convinced that there’s any state school or local education authority in the country that would meet the financial standing,” says David. Paul also complains about the complexity of Section 19 administration.
This sounds very pretentious, but we couldn’t find a contractor that runs it as well as we do – Paul Womersley
The jury is out on whether the introduction at the start of 2025 of VAT on school fees has made a difference to business. “From our school’s point of view, the VAT is being managed,” he says. “We have seen a drop-off in work we do for some other schools, but we can’t say that’s to do with the VAT.”
When routeone visited on a very quiet day in August, recruitment and retention was an obvious topic, given most of GSAL’s drivers only work term-time plus 20 days. Although recruitment was a problem in the early days, it rarely is now, insists Paul. “Drivers who have families tend to like term-time contracts because they can have time off with their kids,” he says.
GSAL Transport stays true to its original USP
With 10 years under its belt, GSAL goes from strength to strength, but it doesn’t want to outgrow its original purpose. “I have this conversation constantly with the governors of the school,” says Paul.
“By nature, I’m an optimist and think, whatever we do, we can always do better and bigger. But our previous chair of governors told me, “We don’t want to end up as a large bus company with a small school attached. We prefer it to be a big school with a small bus company attached.”
“We are consciously holding it back because we don’t want it to get any bigger. We could be huge, but we are not interested.
“Whatever we do will have to be based here, we don’t want an offsite facility. We certainly don’t want to get to a point where we’ve got 50 buses out there and we’re trying to get 12 of them back here to do the service runs. I think it’s as big as it’s going to be because of the USP of the service.”
