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McGill's Buses - Renfrewshire & Inverclyde

Observer

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3 Nov 2014
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709
Yes all of these SPT services are unreliable due to breakdowns , probably due to bad maintenance which will come out in the wash when the postponed PI goes ahead .

SPT are stuck between a rock and a hard place because there aren't many operators capable of doing all of these services apart from First who will inevitably be expensive causing SPT budgetary problems
And yet SPT did at one point a few years ago acquire an operating license of their own because of issues they were facing with Henderson Travel (before they went bust), yet didn't use it and later surrendered it.
 
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PaulMc7

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Yes all of these SPT services are unreliable due to breakdowns , probably due to bad maintenance which will come out in the wash when the postponed PI goes ahead .

SPT are stuck between a rock and a hard place because there aren't many operators capable of doing all of these services apart from First who will inevitably be expensive causing SPT budgetary problems

Given that First is all about cuts just now there's very little chance of them taking any of those services on unless they're paid very well to do so. Might be a chance for smaller operators to take on some services
 

Bus Guru

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9 Jul 2019
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McGills accounts are over due now, they should have been lodged before 31 September and should be seen online now.

This means the last accounts published was to the end of 2017, ancient history.

It should be possible to publish accounts less than 9 months ( maximum time Companies House allows) from the end of the last years accounts, in this case December 2018.
 

PaulMc7

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McGills accounts are over due now, they should have been lodged before 31 September and should be seen online now.

This means the last accounts published was to the end of 2017, ancient history.

It should be possible to publish accounts less than 9 months ( maximum time Companies House allows) from the end of the last years accounts, in this case December 2018.

Got a feeling the fact we've not seen them yet is the fact that they're possibly even worse than we've thought
 

PaulMc7

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In the event that McGills was to go bankrupt, who would take over the services, maybe Stagecoach?

Possibly although the fact they operate so much of the market might be an issue. Could see First consider it considering the likes of Paisley, Erskine etc aren't exactly miles away plus they have the 9 in Paisley anyway
 

Gingerbus1991

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30 Jul 2018
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In the event McGills went down, first and stagecoach may find the CMA blocking such a takeover citing a monolopy on services.

Lothian may have had this broblem with East Coast Buses but considering they were the only ones interested and if they hadn't it would've ment no bus services for the area, that went in their favour.

West Coast Motors may find a space because they have an inconsiderable level of service in glasgow as is.
 

PaulMc7

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In the event McGills went down, first and stagecoach may find the CMA blocking such a takeover citing a monolopy on services.

Lothian may have had this broblem with East Coast Buses but considering they were the only ones interested and if they hadn't it would've ment no bus services for the area, that went in their favour.

West Coast Motors may find a space because they have an inconsiderable level of service in glasgow as is.

First could sell the loss making operations and keep the rest which might also stop the issue with the CMA happening and for West Coast they've dropped a lot in Glasgow due to financial issues. The 16 got dropped completely with the 84 going too and they only took the 15 on again once it was SPT tendered as Mcgills dropped it after a month. Even the 17 has dropped frequency to 15mins when it was 12 for quite a while and I'm sure it was 10 mins at peaks at one point too
 

Gingerbus1991

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First could sell the loss making operations and keep the rest which might also stop the issue with the CMA happening and for West Coast they've dropped a lot in Glasgow due to financial issues. The 16 got dropped completely with the 84 going too and they only took the 15 on again once it was SPT tendered as Mcgills dropped it after a month. Even the 17 has dropped frequency to 15mins when it was 12 for quite a while and I'm sure it was 10 mins at peaks at one point too
Big problem with both routes is the fact first already run a service on much of those routes, namely the 61 and 60s on Maryhill Rd & in milngavie plus avondale & first provide a bus from duntocher to clydebank at least every 10 minutes.
 

PaulMc7

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Big problem with both routes is the fact first already run a service on much of those routes, namely the 61 and 60s on Maryhill Rd & in milngavie plus avondale & first provide a bus from duntocher to clydebank at least every 10 minutes.

Yeah Duntocher gets overkill with buses for such a small area and I'm surprised Avondale can keep going tbh. Buses are in awful condition
 

Observer

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3 Nov 2014
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709
With the driver stories you can read about Avondale, sure makes you wonder why they get such a blind eye turned to them. And by driver stories I mean the reviews on Indeed:
I seriously wonder just how desperate one must be to even consider employment with this excuse of a company and I only served 2 painful weeks at their cruel hands. Buses are cold, broken this and broken that, reversing the heaps of junk by yourself and in cramped spaces, in fact the first day I entered the depot I honestly thought it had it's own scrap yard until I quickly caught on that it was in fact THE DEPOT, and on your way out the "mechanics" have the brass neck to hit the wheel nuts with a spanner to make sure they're still on and yet the whole body feels as though it's about to fall off. You could get landed with the same pile of scrap every day and writing a long list of faults that just takes up space in the filing cabinet. Always on your tail if you don't get £100+ per day cause after all what you do make only fills the pockets of the boss to fund his flash holidays and car collection cause he cares nothing for the company, only for what it does for him. I was verbally abused and threatened by a passenger in Drumchapel because I wouldn't change his £20 for a £2.50 fare. This job is tough enough without this deadly concoction and if it was up to me I'd set up my own bus company in the town and run them to out of it.
A typical day at work is arriving around 7am (spare) or 7:30am (if you know your shift). If you're spare you spend 40 minutes moving buses out into the street in a dark muddy yard, reversing with no help. They tap the wheel nuts to see if they're still on then you leave the bus out on the street. Then, there is a 75% chance that you'll be sent home with 1 hours pay and that's that. If you have a shift then you'll spend the day working from 7:30am until about 6:15/6:30pm with a 1 hour unpaid break and the last 30/40mins of your shift unpaid while you end your duty and fuel up the bus at a local petrol station.

You will be verbally abused and possibly even physically threatened.
The supervisor (changes regularly) will not care about you, and tell you to "deal with it", if something happens.
Most of the buses are cold and a around 1/3 are simply dangerous and not fit for service.
You will be questioned if you don't bring in more than £100 a day.
Avoid this company at all costs. They do not care about anything other than money.
Constantly pressured to bring in more cash each day. Busses are outright dangerous and if you question it you get told to go home without pay. Don’t get paid for fuelling bus end of shift. Some busses have no heating. Shocking to work for avoid at all cost.

I didn’t get paid my holiday pay I accrued once I left, when I phoned to ask about it I got told to “deal with it”
 

PaulMc7

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With the driver stories you can read about Avondale, sure makes you wonder why they get such a blind eye turned to them. And by driver stories I mean the reviews on Indeed:

Yeah I've read these before I'm sure. The 400 runs near me as the only direct competition to First's 1C through Garscadden. I'm surprised that they're still going tbh although First could probably take them apart as far as competition goes if they wanted to and if Mcgills ever considered more Clydebank services then I'm sure they could too although I just don't see it

Another thing too about them is that most of their buses are in that bad a state they've slowly turned orange from red. Such a disaster
 
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mde

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17 Nov 2016
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513
McGills accounts are over due now, they should have been lodged before 31 September and should be seen online now.
Companies House shows them as being booked onto their system on 3/10/19 (the actual scanned document, when it appears, will likely be date stamped)… now just the wait to see what it contains! :lol:
 

Volvodart

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The accounts of related companies (now online) were lodged on 27 September 2019. Of interest, these record McGills profit for the year 2018 increasing to just over £1,000,000 from just over £100,000 last year. I should point out from the accounts now available, that the gross profit is actually a good bit down from 2017, the major difference in operating profit this year being the last of the goodwill written off in 2007, which was £2 million.
 
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Volvodart

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MCGILL'S Post Profit Rise But Warn 'Car-Centric' Councils: "Bus Users Are Voters Too"
https://inverclydenow.com/news/loca...car-centric-councils-bus-users-are-voters-too

MCGILL'S Post Profit Rise But Warn 'Car-Centric' Councils: "Bus Users Are Voters Too"

MCGILL'S Buses made an increased profit in 2018 despite falling passengers numbers. The company's board is calling for the declaration of the 'climate emergency' to be backed with bus priority measures from local councils.

The Greenock-based company, which employs more than 800 staff, posted a pre-tax profit of almost £1.4million on a turnover of nearly £38million.

McGill’s chairman James Easdale said: “Our profits are up thanks to a realignment of our business and skilful management of our resources and a 27 per cent decline in our administration charges. My brother and fellow shareholder Sandy and our managing director Ralph Roberts, have worked extremely hard to make this business more efficient and profitable.”

Mr Easdale added: “The year saw a continuation of passenger decline that has prevailed in the industry since 2015. The decline was driven by low retail activity brought on by the decline of the high street.”

Managing director Ralph Roberts added: “Government policy at national and local level favours the car and train with the bulk of infrastructure investment going to these two modes. Buses deliver 74 per cent of public transport journeys yet this mode receives peppercorn levels of infrastructure investment.

"We are talking to government at a national level to release more funding for the bus user but local government sees this as high risk as it will bring voter backlash from car users. Local politicians need to remember that bus users are also voters.

“The bulk of our business revenues are earned in the local authority area which has the highest car ownership in Scotland -– Renfrewshire -- so it is unsurprising that this local authority chooses this polluting mode over green public transport when looking at where they spend their budget. Road traffic is up 29 per cent since 1990 and this is the inevitable conclusion of these car-centric policies.”

Board director Sandy Easdale said: “Given the climate emergency now declared, local authorities need to prioritise the bus over the car. Buses are the answer to congestion and poor air quality whereas the car is the cause of them. We need more bus shelters, more parking management and better road works management which will contribute to healthier and wealthier lives for the public.”

McGill’s Bus Service Ltd is owned by Arranglen Ltd, the investment vehicle of the Easdale family.

McGill's has depots in Greenock, Hamilton, Inchinnan and Johnstone. and operates more than 400 buses across 110 routes which serve North Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire and Glasgow City. The company has invested around £21million in its fleet since 2014.
 

Jordan Adam

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I can see why bus operators dislike Glasgow City Centre, it's a joke the time it takes to travel just a block, even off peak.
 

Bus Guru

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You have got to give them cr edit for a much better financial year than the previous year They seem to have turned the company round despite reduction in passenger number , congestion and the low envision zone .

However , just over a million after tax is about 2.5% profit or assuming 400 buses an annual profit of only £2500 per bus (50 quid a week) so very difficult to invest in new £175,000 vehicles at this return of capital unless there is drastic reduction in the fleet

Assuming 400 hundred bus fleet with life of 16 years requires renewal of 25 buses per year it about £4M each and every year to represent average age
 

Cesarcollie

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5 Jun 2016
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You have got to give them cr edit for a much better financial year than the previous year They seem to have turned the company round despite reduction in passenger number , congestion and the low envision zone .

However , just over a million after tax is about 2.5% profit or assuming 400 buses an annual profit of only £2500 per bus (50 quid a week) so very difficult to invest in new £175,000 vehicles at this return of capital unless there is drastic reduction in the fleet

Assuming 400 hundred bus fleet with life of 16 years requires renewal of 25 buses per year it about £4M each and every year to represent average age

£1.8m Operating Profit - the normal measure - equates to about 5%. Plus they’ve got £3.5m in the bank. Considerably healthier, relatively, than many other companies (Firstgroup for example!). Cash available for investment = profit plus depreciation, and the latter equals just short of £3m. So the total cash generated by the business is about £4.8m. Certainly enough for prudent fleet replacement plus a shareholder dividend, though investment may have to be scaled back either by fleet shrinkage, keeping old vehicles longer, or some judicious secondhand purchases.

In any event, not unreasonable to remove ‘survival’ from the title of the thread!
 

Volvodart

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The actual results were a good bit down on 2017, they did not have the £2 million goodwill write off in 2018 which made things look better in comparison.
 

Bus Guru

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9 Jul 2019
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If it hasn't been rescheduled ,today is the Mc Gills Public Inquiry day in Edinburgh They have been called as a company and also called ndividually are James Easdale Colin n Napier and Ralph Roberts
 

Volvodart

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If it did go ahead, we are only likely to hear quickly if it was just a fine for poor service that the company agreed with. Anything else is likely to take time for the Traffic Commissioner to consider .
 

PaulMc7

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Fares will probably go up again anyway. Always seems like Mcgills prices are going up it happens that often
 

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