PAPER B

 

BRIEFING NOTE FOR THE POLICY COMMISSION FOR ECONOMY, TOURISM, REGENERATION AND TRANSPORT           

VALUE FOR MONEY ENQUIRY INTO WIGHTBUS

 

BRIEFING ON BEHALF OF THE HEAD OF ENGINEERING SERVICES

 

1.             Background

 

1.1          Wightbus is the Isle of Wight Council in-house fleet of buses and coaches. Wightbus forms one part of the Transport Section which itself is part of Engineering Services. The Transport Section comprises the following activities:

·          Wightbus

·          Cowes Floating Bridge

·          Council Vehicle Fleet Management and Maintenance

·          Co-ordination and Procurement of Home to School Transport Services

·          Public Transport (Bus/Rail) Co-ordination, Procurement and Concessionary Fares

 

1.2          There are 57 Wightbus staff. They comprise 6 management and administrative staff, 41 drivers and 10 passenger escorts. Additionally Wightbus buys into corporately provided treasury, human resource and payroll services.

 

1.3        Wightbus operates 30 fully seat-belted PCV Operator Licensed buses and coaches plus 2 support vans. The Wightbus fleet is the second largest fleet of buses and coaches on  the Isle of Wight. By way of comparison, Southern Vectis operates around 75 buses on the Island, The next largest operator after Southern Vectis and Wightbus has around 8 coaches. The Wightbus bus and coach fleet comprises 6 owned vehicles, 7 rental vehicles and 17 leased vehicles. Wightbus vehicles range in capacity from 16 seaters to 72 seaters.and almost half have access for mobility impaired customers

 

1.4        The Wightbus operation is currently based at the Cemetery Hill Depot at Whitcombe Road in Carisbrooke, but detailed proposals to relocate the operation are being evaluated.

 

1.5          Wightbus business activity is 7 days a week with continuous operations for over 19 hours daily from 5.30 in the morning until 1am at night.

 

1.6          Wightbus currently operates in most bus and coach market sectors except tours and              long distance express services. Current market sectors in which Wightbus provides services include:

·          School Transport                                                                                 41% of income

·          Public Bus Services                                                                            27% of income

·          Adult Day-Care Centre Transport                                                     10% of income

·          Private Hires (local, mainland and European)                              22% of income

 

1.7        Income from Wightbus activities in 2004-05 was £1.57 million. In 2005-06 this figure is likely to be in excess of £1.7 million. The anticipated income in 2005-06 seems certain to exceed projected expenditure.

 

1.8.1            In 2004-05 Wightbus carried approximately 915,000 passengers. It is forecast that as       a consequence of undertaking a greater number of public bus services this number will rise to 1.1 million in 2005-06

 

2.                   Historic Context

 

2.1                An in-house fleet of 10 buses and 10 dual purpose vans was first set up by the former County Council in 1971 following a Management Services Review of Education Transport that had concluded that there was likely to be an insufficient supply of vehicles and operators on the Isle of Wight to cater for the future demand for home to school transport and that there was no market check or restraint to prices demanded by private contractors and Southern Vectis.

 

2.2          From the outset of the formation of the in-house fleet, a principal concern has been the development of sufficient income-generating activity outside the school peak and therefore to offset some of the standing costs of the operation. The diversification into the market for provision of public bus services has been critical to Wightbus’ recent development in this respect.

 

3.             Cost comparisons

 

3.1                The core Wightbus function is provision of home to school transport for mainstream scholars. Wightbus undertakes around 30% of the mainstream school lift (1000 children).The Council continues to secure 65% of its school lift requirement via purchase of term tickets for use on commercial bus services provided by Southern Vectis. This gives operational and cost efficiencies to Southern Vectis, and provides network safeguards for public bus services to the Council. Wightbus school routes are generally those that cannot be provided commercially by Southern Vectis because the numbers to be carried are too small or because the route is rural and convoluted in nature. A more appropriate direct cost comparison for Wightbus would be against those of operators other than Southern Vectis who provide school runs

 

2004-05 Southern Vectis term ticket for mainstream scholar    £395

2004-05 Wightbus term ticket for mainstream scholar               £426

2004-05 Other school bus contractors                                           £696

 

2005-06 Southern Vectis term ticket for mainstream scholar    £415 (projected)

2005-06 Wightbus term ticket for mainstream scholar               £454 (agreed)

2005-06 Other school bus contractors                                           £731 (projected)

 

The Council procures 90% of its Special Educational Needs (SEN) transport from Wightbus because aside from a limited number of taxi operators there has been no supplier of suitable vehicles and trained passenger escorts. The true comparison is therefore with taxi operators charges

 

2004-05 Taxi operator average annual charge per SEN scholar              £2639

                2004-05 Wightbus term ticket per SEN scholar                                            £1628

 

                2005-06 Taxi operator average annual charge per SEN scholar              £2771 (projected)

                2005-06 Wightbus term ticket per SEN scholar                                            £1735 (agreed)

                (The above figures are in respect of SEN children requiring the care of an escort)

 

3.2                Wightbus also provides Adult Day-Care transport on behalf of the Adult Services Directorate. These transport services are also provided through Service Level Agreement Around 54000 day-care passenger movements take place annually under this SLA. It is estimated that provision of this service by Wightbus is at a rate that is approximately 40% of comparable costs if taxis were used instead.

 

3.3          Wightbus has been the only regular tenderer other than Southern Vectis for the provision of subsidised Local Bus Services on the Island. Because of the commercial advantages that ownership of bus stations and management of the Rover ticket network card scheme has given to Southern Vectis over the years, sustained entry into the bus market over the past twenty years has proven virtually impossible for every other operator than Wightbus

 

3.4          So far as the Private Hire market is concerned, large numbers of hirings are made by local and mainland schools for educational visits. Their use of Wightbus is wholly at their discretion, and not bound by contractual obligation, and the level of repeat business suggests customer satisfaction on cost and quality grounds.

 

3.5          Customer satisfaction surveys have included the IW Council Best Value Report June 2000, in which Wightbus had the highest customer satisfaction % of all operators on the Island (over 90% satisfied or better)

 

Andy Morris

Transport Manager