Looking at old bus timetables, to many bus companies, parcels were important.
Could this idea make a comeback? Or is it a non starter with OPO?
And how many buses pass by more than one depot?The only options available would be collection and drop off at bus depots. And they can be a fair bit away.
As @GusB has pointed out, the world has moved on too much for this ever to come back. Most of the parcels in those days tended to be from Market town/City to villages - prescriptions, motor parts to Scripps Garage etc, rather than parcels crossing the breadth of the country. The bus industry doesn't have the infrastructure to cope with it anymore, and the cost of re-establishment more than the likely revenues, especially with the competition of parcel delivery vans now.Looking at old bus timetables, to many bus companies, parcels were important.
Could this idea make a comeback? Or is it a non starter with OPO?
I have no knowledge of how things were done in NBC land, but in SBG land parcels traffic was fairly significant. At my local bus station (Elgin) there were a couple of wheeled laundry-type baskets that were used, and they'd often be full. The Inverness - Aberdeen Citylink service would pull in and parcels would be loaded and unloaded.How big a business was it?
I have seen reference to it in Terms and conditions but I cannot ever recall seeing an unaccompanied parcel being loaded or unloaded on a bus, nor seen any transaction happening at a travel office or local shop. Was it an NBC/SBG thing? - I was brought up in a land of municipals.
That's a lie; I was nowhere near Hyde Road Depot!Talking of municipals Manchester Corporation carried parcels on its trams (and had a Royal Mail postbox), but on abandonment in 1949 opted for its own van delivery service rather than using buses. This continued into SELNEC and GMT days (although much reduced), with the final vehicles at Parrs Wood Depot operating until the late 1970s. It certainly helped that GUS was right next to Hyde Road Depot, providing extensive catalogue business.
As well as the massive laundry baskets of parcels being loaded into the boots of Alexander Y-Types (if they had them) I remember in Dundee and Perth we also used to have newspaper deliveries. All services leaving Dundee about 3pm Mon-Sat would have bundles of the evening paper on them. Some were massive and dropped at a stop, or a paper boy would meet the bus, but I remember on our run (16 Dundee to Perth) most were small quantities rolled up like poster tubes. If you were good you could open the door or window and fling them at the shop doors without pausing too much. Not sure how we were compensated - other than the driver got a free paper - but we carried them on the Stagecoach 16s that ran the shared service with Strathtay.I have no knowledge of how things were done in NBC land, but in SBG land parcels traffic was fairly significant. At my local bus station (Elgin) there were a couple of wheeled laundry-type baskets that were used, and they'd often be full. The Inverness - Aberdeen Citylink service would pull in and parcels would be loaded and unloaded.
From there the parcels would then go onto local services and be dropped off at local agents. In my village, the driver would sometimes toot and wait for somebody to come out of the shop, or if the shop staff were expecting a parcel they'd often be waiting at the stop. Sometimes the driver would take the parcel over to them.
We'd send parcels to Glasgow, phone my aunt to say it was on the way and she would collect it from Buchanan Bus Station a couple of days later. It always appeared to be a fairly efficient operation.
I wonder if any of the independents were ever involved where there was no SBG service (eg West Coast Motors).
I don't remember that & I worked for PMT from 1995... I have a mate who was the Commercial Manager, I'll quiz him on it...PMT were offering this service in the late 90’s. I remember seeing it advertised in a X18/23 Hanley-Sheffield timetable.
There was no national parcels network, but several companies (certainly in the south/midlands area) joined together their networks to cover a wider area. In the NBC company I worked for parcels could be consigned inter route and inter company, but they would always go via a bus station enquiry/parcels office for interchange. The main use of the service was from town/city to villages of prescriptions, motor parts to rural garages, individual items ordered on account from town shops etc, plus rolls of (evening) newspapers. In some more dispersed rural areas, some daytime trips may have half the seats taken up with parcels.As far as I can remember there was no national parcels by bus network in England or Wales The NBC companies I worked for certainly carried parcels but they didn't interchange parcels with other group companies, in fact they didn't interchange parcels at all in most parts of the country - if there wasn't a direct bus between the origin and destination towns/villages of a parcel, the parcels agent/bus station office/driver/conductor wouldn't accept it.
PMT definitely offered a parcels service. I recall it being 50p in the end. I saw it advertised somewhere, probably a 232 timetable leaflet, which is what brought the service to my attention. That would be sometime after 1990.I don't remember that & I worked for PMT from 1995... I have a mate who was the Commercial Manager, I'll quiz him on it...
They did in Wales in the 70s.In the late 80s I don't remember Crosville in Macclesfield do parcels, but the only buses I used was to get to school on the local services
Very interesting, thanks. Midland Red certainly had a parcel service, which they pushed heavily - it was something new to me when I moved to Coventry at the end of the '60s. You are right about rural shop closures, I remember seeing a lists of agents once, in really obscure villages - they almost certainly wouldn't have a village shop now. Parcels were stored in the cubby hole under the stairs (in D9s) if I remember correctly. This would create another problem, most buses I use have inadequate storage space for passengers as it is. The metal tray just inside the door (usually behind the first seat) is for the Metro - passengers expect that now and it is in a (fairly) sensible place. Also how secure is it for an item in transit to be placed there - doesn't a driver have enough to do without checking that a parcel is still in situ. Just behind that is often the space for wheelchairs. The heyday of buses carrying parcels was well before wheelchair users found most forms of public transport anything other disability unfriendly.There was no national parcels network, but several companies (certainly in the south/midlands area) joined together their networks to cover a wider area. In the NBC company I worked for parcels could be consigned inter route and inter company, but they would always go via a bus station enquiry/parcels office for interchange. The main use of the service was from town/city to villages of prescriptions, motor parts to rural garages, individual items ordered on account from town shops etc, plus rolls of (evening) newspapers. In some more dispersed rural areas, some daytime trips may have half the seats taken up with parcels.
With the more affluent people using cars, the decline of 'accounts' at shops, rural motor garages closing in favour of more reliable cars and dealers doing servicing work, town centre motor factors moving to suburban industrial estates so no longer close to the bus station, rural shop (parcel agents) closures, costs of the parcel 'boys' (in the case of my first employer two part time retired men) at both bus company and consignor meant that the traffic was reducing. One man buses on the busier routes meant demands for increased running times (and therefore increased costs), plus the security issue of drivers leaving buses/money/ticket machine unattended whilst delivering to an agent. A further complication occurred when VAT was introduced, and conductors had to be issued with separate parcels tickets (all having to be audited and accounted for) as it was no longer acceptable to simply issue a 'Setright' ticket for the parcel charge (passenger fares not being VATable, but goods conveyance was). Some companies tried quite hard to drum up parcels trade but it was a losing battle and the costs eventually outweighed the revenue.
The Border Couriers, or the Couriers as we called them, last ran in 2007. Operators over their existence were as follows:The border courier services in the Scottish Borders carried parcels well into the 2000s. First lowland used special optare metroriders that had a luggage space at the back, separated from the seating area.
Update from previous response.I don't remember that & I worked for PMT from 1995... I have a mate who was the Commercial Manager, I'll quiz him on it...
"consigners must load the parcel themselves, pay a fee of 50p (for which they should receive two dog tickets from the driver) and must arrange for someone to collect the parcel from the bus at its destination".