“So, you’re here to clean some buses,” William jokes as I shake his hand. I laugh along with him, but the visit that follows almost makes me feel guilty that I didn’t reach for a bucket and sponge rather than my dictaphone. When I had arrived at Lawson’s of Corby, the small depot was a hive of activity. I was about to learn how everyone in the business mucks in to do everything.
As Founder and Director William Lawson and daughter Emma Lawson-Lemay explain to me, team spirit, flexibility and hard work are a recipe for durability for this Northamptonshire operator.
William started out as a driver with Nesbit Brothers of Melton Mowbray in 1985 and later joined Stagecoach United Counties. He eventually ended up as a senior driving instructor for Stagecoach East but was made redundant in 2007.
“I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I applied for my O-Licence, got one minibus, then a second minibus and then an old 33-seater then another minibus and progressed from there. Each year, I grew a bit more and took on a bit more. I used to do it all myself — wash all the buses and everything,” he recalls.
The business grew its fleet to around 30 minibuses, coaches and buses, from 16 to 87-seaters, last year moving from the premises next door to its current location. William says: “The key to our success is that I worked long and hard hours for it, especially in the early days.”
Scaling back
However, he has eased back in recent years, with much of the management now in the capable hands of Emma as Finance Director and Transport Manager.
“With COVID, I changed my work ethic because I was doing 18 hours a day seven days a week but, with the pandemic, we lost all the private hire side of the work and I suddenly realised I don’t need to be working 18 hours a day.
“It was quite refreshing as, at that point, I stopped all airport work and I don’t take very many late jobs now. Providing we can make a living, I’m fine with it. I’m 64 next birthday — I don’t want to be rich, I just want to make a living.”
At some point, all four of William’s daughters were involved, although now only Emma remains with her husband, Martin Lemay, as Assistant General Manager. Both Emma and William still get out onto the road. Emma, who drives service vehicles every day, says: “With me, when I drive tends to be when it’s needed whereas, with dad, it’s because he wants to get out there.”
Epitomising the all-hands-on-deck approach, Emma adds: “Newbies who come in think I’ve just walked into this job, but I haven’t. He made me do cleaning and getting out there and I did a service run for a while and I’ve had to earn my way here.” The drivers work in the garage or clean when they are not required on the road, although most in what William emphasises is a “good team” are part-time.
The majority of the business’s work is home-to-school and that helped it survive the pandemic. “We came out the other side of COVID no worse than when we went in because of the amount of school contracts we had and they were still paid a percentage and staff were furloughed. The operators who had mainly private hires had no income”, says William.
We make a living and we plod on with it, we’re not going to be rich. I don’t want to go any bigger – William Lawson
However, the pandemic did cost Lawson’s. Emma says: “We did lose a few staff through it, but we came out as a team probably stronger.”
William admits that the rates in the industry are so poor currently that staff pay suffers and driver retention is an issue. Most of its training is done in-house.
Since the pandemic, William has eased back and says he has become more selective about the work taken on. “I haven’t taken on what I don’t want,” he says. “I don’t want to be on the end of a phone at 0200 when there are drunk people looking for a bus. I’ve been there and done it.
“I don’t want the worry of sending a bus with kids to the other side of Wales and waiting for it to get back in. It’s more beneficial for me profit-wise to do runs and back to Kettering with a minibus than to send a bus to Manchester, ragging the vehicle to death.”
One area of opportunity which Lawson’s would like to develop further is its Passenger Assistant Training Scheme arm. Emma is a training agent for the scheme, which is administered by the Community Transport Association and is a nationally recognised standard for those who provide care and assistance to passengers travelling on the road.
Another aspect of Lawson’s work is timetabled bus services, which are sourced and funded by village councils. The Welland Wanderer represents only two services per week – one between Gretton and Market Harborough on Tuesdays and the other between Stoke Albany and Corby on Fridays.
The operator is happy to continue the rolling contract mainly as a service to the community. “We’re never going to make much money on them,” says William. “It provides a service for the community and it keeps the wheels rolling and keeps the staff employed. If I sat and looked at it logistically for cost and profit, it wouldn’t run. It’s all part of the bigger picture and it gets these folk out.”
‘Plodding on’
It is in keeping with William’s philosophy on business, which is echoed by many operators countrywide. “We make a living and we plod on with it, we’re not going to be rich, but we’re here,” he says.
“I don’t want to go any bigger. I always said I didn’t want more than 10 vehicles. It can’t get any bigger anyway because there isn’t enough room. We concentrate on what we do and we’re both in bed at night.”
When it comes to his outlook on coach operation, he adds that that he has always prided himself on a good reputation. “I had a good reputation as a senior instructor for Stagecoach and I carried that through to this business,” he says. “You can speak to whoever you want and I don’t believe you’ll hear a bad word said and I’m proud of that. I like it when people ring up and say you’ve been recommended.”
Working as a family
Operating as a family business carries advantages and disadvantages, to which many coach operators will attest. However, Emma believes it helps the team dynamic in their case.
“We get on well. He’s not just my dad, he’s a friend,” says Emma. “If we’ve got something to say, we’ll just say it. Sometimes it goes down like a lead balloon, sometimes it goes down all right. But we know it comes from a good place whereas, if it were someone else, it might not be taken that way.
“One of the key things is we talk it out. While I may not necessarily agree with everything he does and he doesn’t agree with everything I do, we talk it out.”
It’s a partnership which seems not about to end soon despite William’s easing back as his fifth decade in the industry approaches. “I can’t imagine retiring,” he says. “I’ll probably just drop dead here. I live it.”
While many businesses aspire to expansion and massive commercial success, Lawson’s is, in contrast, more typical of the thousands of coach operators around the country. William’s persistence is reflected in a business model which works – “plodding on”.
