As well as running the vintage coaches, we also operated a small fleet of modern coaches. Our business philosophy was a little different to most coach businesses and was remarkably successful in the three and a bit years that we operated. We decided to close down the business for a combination of reasons that we won't bore you with.
Anyway, over the years, we had a total of 5 modern coaches, ranging from a 16 seat minibus to a 49 seat so-called "executive" coach. WHY are they called executive coaches? I don't think ours ever made a decision or "executed" that decision, anymore than an "executive" car or "executive" home ever did... But be that as it may, it had air-conditioning, a bog and if we'd ever got round to fitting it, a DVD player and screen to while away the longer journeys.
Our first modern vehicle was a 16 seat LDV Convoy factory built minibus. Not exactly the last thing in comfort, but functional enough to get people to work and kids to school. From a business viewpoint, they are great vehicles to operate - simple, reliable and cheap. From a comfort viewpoint, they leave a lot to be desired. We decided to no longer do any contract work and so the LDV was sold to Pete's Airlink, where it still earns its keep and has been named "Rambler".
Shortly afterwards, we added a Caetano Algarve 35 seat coach.
This was built on a MAN 11-190 chassis. A very nice vehicle, but it did have a few gremlins. In the 9 months we owned, it did only let us down twice: once when the gearbox failed and once when all the lights failed. If we'd had a fleet of vehicles, none of the problems that were caused would ever have arisen, but operating just one coach, it has to be perfect. So we traded it in against a Mercedes. Selling this coach was probably not the brightest of moves - although it had suffered a number of minor problems, we'd put them all right at the time we sold it and so the next owner got themselves a good little coach at an attractive price (even allowing for replacing the inter-cooler).
The Mercedes is a very nice vehicle - I rather liked the fact that it is an update of the old Bedford SB in that a good quality coach has been built on what is basically a lorry chassis. Passengers like them too, as they are comfortable and quiet - with the engine at the front. They are nice to drive as well. As would be expected of a Mercedes, this coach was 100% reliable in every way, although I was very annoyed early in 2005 when it failed it's MOT. The failure sheet looked awful and words were had with our maintenance company! There were two failures - an "insecure rear suspension mount" (which we found was correctly tightened) and a "gross air leak" (which we found to be the emergency door release, used by the examiner to enter the vehicle, and which dumps the air so that the brakes are applied). In other words, it was working as designed. So we took it back 3 days later for re-test, having done nothing and it passed. So much for objective testing. We were off the road for 4 days for no good reason at all and, more importantly, our record now showed an MOT failure against us. Not important for a car, but very important if you hold an Operator's Licence.
Then we added a Caetano Optimo - probably the best little coach in the world and certainly, from an operators view, an ideal little vehicle. The only problem with these little coaches is that they have a reputation for being raced and being unreliable when mistreated. But looked after, they are great. So the challenge then was to find one that was cheap and had been looked after. And found one on, of all places, Ebay! Trouble is, you needed to look through the surface muck and grot to see the decent vehicle underneath it. Much cleaning later, a decent vehicle appeared. It had been fitted with a speed limiter from new and the maintenance records from new were available for inspection.
Finally, we added a "proper" coach - our 49 seat Caetano Enigma, again found after a bit of searching. Once we'd decided to add the large coach, the first choice was the chassis. As this was during the time when Transbus had just gone bust, this ruled out Dennis on the grounds of doubt over future parts supplies. I have an irrational dislike of all things Ford, so this ruled out Iveco by implication (a friend has a wonderful explanation of what the acronym Iveco stands for - but they'd set their lawyers on me if I printed it here), so we were left with Scania and Volvo. Volvo won on the basis of market share over many years (it's a bit like buying IBM, I think). Therefore, it was going to be a B10M. The coach design was a bit trickier. From the entire market range, I quite liked Van Hool coaches - but they are unbelievably expensive. They have a reputation for being well built and long lasting and thus the prices are no doubt justified. I wasn't particularly impressed with any of the Spanish built coaches - they seem to age quickly, but did like the design of the new Caetano Enigma. Our experience of operating two other Caetano bodied coaches also suggested that they are well built and the pricing was reasonable. Trouble was, though, there are not that many in the market and when they do come available, they sell in days. Then, I heard a whisper that Bus Eirean had a whole fleet coming back off lease. That's where ours came from, via Ventura (dealer) and our friend, Andy Nixon, formerly of Caetano and who had sold us the original Algarve. Despite the best efforts of the various Government agencies to thwart us, we did eventually get it on the road and it worked every day from May until the closure of the business. And we sold it for virtually what we'd paid for it as well.
