A coach operator would 100% cover it for the right price! A price based on paying wages for two drivers, the mileage there and back and reflecting the short notice.
If the rate is intended to pay less than the cost of the wages and fuel and nothing for overheads or short notice reward then that would be a scenario where no coach operator would be likely to be interested, but I think this would be wholly inapplicable on this part of the network!
Maybe. If he could get cover, and had spare vehicles, and drivers. But it would have to be a bloody good price for most people to bother with. When we had coaches, out of the 12 local operators, only one used to bother with RRB work.
Do coach companies tend to have “standby” drivers, or is it more a case of ringing around and begging people to come in!?
My knowledge may be out of date, but generally no. (We didn’t, and I’m not aware of anybody else that did).
PCV Drivers hours seems to be a bit more restrictive than the rules that train drivers work to, so calling someone in the middle of the night to ask them to do a run is fine, provided they haven’t driven for 9 hours before hand, and then they won’t be able to drive for 9 hours after they get back, so you can’t use anyone who’s driven today, or anyone you need the following day, and you definitely can’t use anyone on a rest day!
Edinburgh to London is let’s say 8 hours, so you either send one guy and put him in a hotel, or two guys and they do there and back. Either way isn’t a great option as you’ve then lost two days worth of driving, and there generally isn’t that level of slack within companies that they can afford to do so. This also assumes no time is spent getting from the depot to the station - so if that’s any more than an hour, you’re probably going to need a third driver just to get the coach ready…
You then have the fact that Driver CPC (insert your own “they’re Mickey Mouse, not real qualifications” comment here if desired…) mean that people like me, who have a day job and just used to drive now and again, haven’t bothered to keep it up as it’s not worth paying for, so we’re no longer readily available as “spares”.