We recently took delivery of a brand-new vehicle fitted with about £10,000 worth of extras to make it up to the standard we wanted, and to comply with the Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations (PSVAIR).
I had been reluctant to spend money on these extras, since my original plan had been to say I would simply avoid any work that required compliant vehicles. But I had a little talk to myself and I got over it.
The reality is that [the end to exemptions] has come at a time where costs are increasing for the industry rapidly, and the price of a PSVAIR system to be fitted is probably equivalent to what we pay extra on fuel over the course of two or three weeks.
At the same time, we’re still very much in a situation where the rates for rail replacement work haven’t changed. At this point it wouldn’t matter if you used a 1983 Leyland Tiger out on rail replacement work or a brand-new vehicle; you’re going to get paid the same. This was the same with PSVAR. The price is generally rubbish, and we’re told to take it or leave it. That’s a harsh way of looking at it, but it’s true.
We were out at the weekend with some non-bus friends and were telling them about this. You start with the initial price of the vehicle — this year alone we have invested just over £600,000 on two vehicles — and people are gobsmacked. They ask what you get as standard, and it’s not a lot, really. You don’t get CCTV and you don’t get PSVAIR compliance as standard. This surprises people.
For operators that haven’t got compliant coaches. to get them converted to full PSVAR and PSVAIR spec, you are probably talking more than £40,000 per vehicle. That doesn’t put £40,000 on the value of the coach and it certainly doesn’t make it earn £40,000 extra.
We’re obviously not asking for that money, because we know the vehicle is not being hired 24/7. But when we’re getting called to do rail replacement journeys at the crack of dawn, or late at night, for £250-300, the costs simply do not add up.
Driver rates are going up all the time, fuel has increased, and we had national insurance increases before that. I sometimes look at everything and ask: what am I getting out of this?
It’s all linked to the fact costs have gone up in so many areas, and adding yet another when there is little difference made at the end of it is crippling. More and more operators are saying they will not bother anymore, and I worry there will not be enough vehicles to comply with PSVAR, let alone PSVAIR.
We are fighting fires all the time to keep up.
Name and address supplied.
