Bus companies affected by fuel issues

[Flange Squeal]

Thought it might be interesting to keep track of which bus companies are being affected by the current fuel “shortage”. So far Little Jim’s Buses have had to suspend all services, and Go Coach have had to suspend daytime bus services.

Little Jim’s Facebook:

little jim’s
Bus 502 and 532
Service temporarily SUSPENDED
due to fuel shortage.
Please accept my apology for your inconvenience.
07736 705520

Go Coach’s website:

Operational Difficulties due to Fuelling - Monday 27th September

Due to problems fuelling our services at fuel stations, we have currently suspended all daytime services.



Currently, our suspended routes are:

1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 208 (except school journeys), 280, 283, 289, 429, 474, 475, Dart 1 & Dart2

We are operating:

Fastrack AZ, go2Direct, 208 (school services only), 237, 631, D3, D12, D13, D29, D30, E1, S1, S2, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8 ,S10, S11, S12, S13, S31, S32, S33 ,S41, T3, T13, TW1, TW2, TW3, TW4, TW5, TW6, TW7, TW8, TW9, TW10, TW11

 

[CN04NRJ]

I was wondering how badly it would affect operators that don't have their own fuel facilities.

 

[chorleyjeff]

Thought it might be interesting to keep track of which bus companies are being affected by the current fuel “shortage”. So far Little Jim’s Buses have had to suspend all services, and Go Coach have had to suspend daytime bus services.

Little Jim’s Facebook:



Go Coach’s website:

A prudent operator would have their own tanks to supply their vehicles and cope with disruptions to supply. Although I guess it is cheaper not to take such precautiuons.
I'm always surprised to see police cars and ambulances getting petrol at service stations given the potential for disruption to supplies. I guess expense of having tanks on site is more expensive than savings of bulk buying but no account of supply resiliance.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

A prudent operator would have their own tanks to supply their vehicles and cope with disruptions to supply. Although I guess it is cheaper not to take such precautiuons.
I'm always surprised to see police cars and ambulances getting petrol at service stations given the potential for disruption to supplies. I guess expense of having tanks on site is more expensive than savings of bulk buying but no account of supply resiliance.

Maintaining a fuel island is not a cheap thing. Prudence might also extend to operators who have vehicles outbased and that's been a practice since the dawn of time yet they often won't have fuel facilities. This is a (social) media generated issue and it isn't a frequent occurence.

 

[PG]

I'm always surprised to see police cars and ambulances getting petrol at service stations given the potential for disruption to supplies.

I used to have a second job at an independent service station so feel able to answer this.

The police had a base in the same town so it made sense for them to refuel at our pumps with fuel cards instead of maintaining their own supplies.

Ambulance and fire service crews also used our pumps even though they didn't have stations in the same town, again with fuel cards.

At all times we maintained a fuel reserve specifically for the emergency services, indeed our operating hours remained unchanged during the pandemic precisely because of the requirement to supply the emergency services.

 

[carlberry]

A prudent operator would have their own tanks to supply their vehicles and cope with disruptions to supply. Although I guess it is cheaper not to take such precautiuons.
I'm always surprised to see police cars and ambulances getting petrol at service stations given the potential for disruption to supplies. I guess expense of having tanks on site is more expensive than savings of bulk buying but no account of supply resiliance.

The regulations covering having your own supply are now fairly arduous (especially petrol) and adds to the planning permission problems if it's a new site. You also need to purchase serious amounts before theres any real saving. Emergency service providers have identified bases with resilient supply facilities however not every vehicle goes to those locations every day. It's much the same argument as happens every time we get a serious snowfall; what level of resiliance do you want and how much are you willing to pay to achieve it?
Back in the 1970s NBC went to the trouble of purchasing it's own fuel tankers to give it options because of supply issues but quickly realised the were just a way of spending money on something that was rarely used and, consequently, when it was needed was unlikely to be ready for action anyway.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

The regulations covering having your own supply are now fairly arduous (especially petrol) and adds to the planning permission problems if it's a new site. You also need to purchase serious amounts before theres any real saving. Emergency service providers have identified bases with resilient supply facilities however not every vehicle goes to those locations every day. It's much the same argument as happens every time we get a serious snowfall; what level of resiliance do you want and how much are you willing to pay to achieve it?
Back in the 1970s NBC went to the trouble of purchasing it's own fuel tankers to give it options because of supply issues but quickly realised the were just a way of spending money on something that was rarely used and, consequently, when it was needed was unlikely to be ready for action anyway.

Indeed, and my father's depot had additional tanks fitted during the late 70s and they were never used in anger - eventually the fuel was used up to avoid having all that capital tied up for little or no reason

 

[Flange Squeal]

Landflight are warning their services around Solihull may be affected by the end of the week as local garages have put a £50 limit on refuelling, but they get through around £100 per bus per day.

Bus firm warns services could be pulled due to fuel crisis

LandFlight Travel Services fear vehicles could be taken off the road after being hit by £50 diesel limit on each bus at the pumps

www.birminghammail.co.uk

Solihull bus firm warns services could be pulled due to fuel panic buying crisis
LandFlight Travel Services fear vehicles could be taken off the road after being hit by £50 diesel limit on each bus at the pumps

The boss of a bus company fears his vehicles could be taken off the road and passengers stranded if the fuel crisis continues.

LandFlight Travel Services runs eight routes and a number of coaches and minibus services in and around the Solihull area.

Operations manager Lee Russell said some petrol stations have already ran out of fuel, while his drivers have been slapped with a £50 limit on diesel each time they fill up.

And he warned that if the situation did not improve in the coming days, his buses could run out of fuel, leaving passengers stranded.

LandFlight runs the A3, A3W, A4, A5, A7, A8, A10 and A12 services. They firm also has contracts with Jaguar Land Rover and Lufthansa.

The company, which is situated off Lode Lane, employs 60 employees including 25 bus drivers and 10 coach drivers.

It does not have its own fuelling facilities on site but an agreement with five Esso garages and two BP stations in the area, which have now put a £50 limit on diesel.

Mr Russell said: "There's a limit to how much fuel we can purchase, around the £50 mark. We would use about £100 of diesel a day per vehicle.

"At the moment, it's possible later in the week that if we are not able to source diesel for our buses, we will not be able to run."

He said around 1,200 passengers use the buses each day.

"The key thing is that the services we operate are not in competition with National Express, so passengers are fully reliant on us," he added.

"We are stressed, we ask people to think about what they are doing. There's no fuel shortage, please think of the community."

Meanwhile, National Express West Midlands said its services were unaffected by the situation as it has its own fuel supply system.

 

[EnviroExplorer]

Landflight are warning their services around Solihull may be affected by the end of the week as local garages have put a £50 limit on refuelling, but they get through around £100 per bus per day.

It’s been reported on the wmbusphotos forum that National Express are selling fuel to Landflight from their Acocks Green depot. Despite the comments made by some it’s nice to see the big operator helping a smaller one out!

 

[37114]

Back in the 1970s NBC went to the trouble of purchasing it's own fuel tankers to give it options because of supply issues but quickly realised the were just a way of spending money on something that was rarely used and, consequently, when it was needed was unlikely to be ready for action anyway.

2 of those tankers are preserved in NBC colours, one from Bristol, one from Southdown with the same owner.

The HGV fleet I look after is a mix of depot based with tanks and outbase fleet which use fuel cards at filling stations. With the exception of Norwich we have managed to get by OK and the drivers have been pretty good at finding fuel

 

[Flange Squeal]

Sanders Coaches in Norfolk have their own supply delivered, but it hasn’t shown up. As a result, to conserve what they do have, they are cancelling some services this weekend.

Alerts | Sanders Coaches

sanderscoaches.com

Dear All



We have been ordering our fuel well in advance but today an order that had been in place 10 days was not delivered. Even worse was we had no prior notification that it would not come. We have now had to take some drastic action to conserve what little fuel we have to ensure children get to school next week and we can operate at least some services.

Therefore regrettably the following services have been cancelled and will not operate this weekend.

Saturday 2nd SERVICES 6 / 6a / x6 / 18 / 33a will not operate

SUNDAY 3rd ALL SERVICES are cancelled - we will be running no buses on Sunday 3rd October that is services CH1 - CH2 - 5A - 44 - X44 and 44A.



Having been told this week the situation was easing and having ordered well in advance and been given a guaranteed delivery date we have still found ourselves in this position. I am very disappointed to have to let people down but if we run out there will be massive childcare issues across the county for parents with children unable to attend School. I am sincerely hoping that someone can get this resolved asap. Apologies again Charles Sanders.

 

[mb88]

An unreported consequence of the current situation. And not even limited to smaller operators. Stagecoach West Scotland for example have buses out stationed in Biggar where there are no facilities just a bit of scrap ground with the buses being fuelled at the local Shell garage.

 

[cnjb8]

An unreported consequence of the current situation. And not even limited to smaller operators. Stagecoach West Scotland for example have buses out stationed in Biggar where there are no facilities just a bit of scrap ground with the buses being fuelled at the local Shell garage.

Another example is the First outstation in Minehead who had to use the local Morrison’s to fuel

 

[DunsBus]

When MacEwan's had the contract for the Galashiels to Carlisle section of service 95, which ran as service 195, they outstationed vehicles in the Galashiels area and used a Shell filling station in the town for refuelling. I still have a memory of seeing one of their Prismas pulling on to its forecourt to refuel after a day's work before heading back to base.

 

[philthetube]

Sanders Coaches in Norfolk have their own supply delivered, but it hasn’t shown up. As a result, to conserve what they do have, they are cancelling some services this weekend.

Alerts | Sanders Coaches

sanderscoaches.com

It must have arrived, full service operated Monday.