Souter sells up

Some current bus news courtesy of Alan Wickens.

Appears in the August 2018 edition of the UK magazine, 'Buses'.

 

END OF THE FRIENDLY ROAD

Published in the Sunday Star-Times, 22 July 2018

NakedBus and ManaBus ceased operations on Sunday, 15 July, leaving a big hole in the travel options for a number of upset customers.

Jess McAllen took the final journey that Sunday.

 

The bus driver welcomes new passengers to the last leg of the last journey.

"When this coach pulls into Wellington, that's it," he says. "There are no more ManaBus services."

It's 6.20pm on a Sunday in Palmerston North and the red double-decker is packed. Jinnie Potter, who boarded at Taupo, sits downstairs, propping her foot up on the seat opposite. She recently had surgery.

Next to her are students Jess Rogers and Josh Tong, who at six foot four is very happy to have some extra space for his legs. The pair paid $35 for their trip from Palmerston North to Wellington.

People are charging phones, sleeping, listening to music, and doing the glare that says no one should even think about sitting next to them.

ManaBus has its roots in NakedBus, a brand it later owned. When NakedBus launched in 2006, it completely changed the long distance bus world – then dominated by InterCity – with dirt cheap $1 fares and online booking.

A month ago, ManaBus announced they would be ceasing all long distance trips.

This shocked loyal customers – those who can't or won't shell out for plane tickets, live in parts of New Zealand that don't have airports, or simply like meeting new people and seeing the countryside. The industry's slide back into monopoly is seen by insiders as a symptom of wider problems with the way our economy works.

Potter started using NakedBus back when it first started and 'points' could be turned into bus tickets.

"They were almost minivan things. They were really cheap and chonky... the guy setting up was running everything on a shoestring and there were a few kerfuffles when buses broke down."

Her love for the buses has had its ups and downs. Potter had a brief stint of travelling with Air New Zealand on the 2011-2013 standby fare scheme, when you could get half price tickets 30 minutes before a flight. This was appealing since JetStar doesn't fly to Taupo.

Then in 2015 ManaBus bought NakedBus and brought in red double deckers that were"slow". The red beasts had to battle the wind.

Earlier that Sunday, 22-year-old property manager Jessica Montgomerie and her friend Deena, sit on the back seat of the last ever ManaBus from Wellington to Auckland. They flew down on Friday night for a 21st, choosing the bus for the return journey as its $28 ticket was much more friendly than a $150 airfare.

Montgomerie grew up in Taupo and regularly bussed the five-hour journey to Auckland and back when she moved.

"I've never actually been on Intercity because it's just too expensive. They don't have the tables or sleepers either," Montgomerie says.

She's on the middle seat, which has become unhinged and is wobbling precariously. The bus jolts as she mutters "Oh my god, 10 more hours".

After today, she'll probably transfer to planes.

"I don't mind spending a little bit more," she says, noting InterCity prices are almost as much as a JetStar ticket – sometimes more expensive – and if she's going to spend a chunk of her time on a bus, it needs to be low cost.

LOYAL FANS

When Sunil Prasad moved to New Zealand from Fiji in 2016, he loved the ManaBus and NakedBus trips from his wife's relatives' home in Auckland to visit his sister in Tauranga.

The fare was "heaps cheaper" compared to Intercity, saving as much as $11 to $15 each way.

That year, for the six months he spent looking, interviewing for, and finally getting a job – only to have to wait three more months for a work visa – he travelled almost 25 times with the company.

"Now my family is here from Fiji and I thought one day during my holidays I'll take them to Tauranga in ManaBus and tour all the areas of Tauranga. I love that place" he says.

"I loved to see the country life and would always sit on the upper deck, right in the front seat for a clearer, full view of beautiful New Zealand nature."

The drivers were friendly and helped with his luggage. The buses came on time and didn't break down . They would "let us get fresh breath, stopping a few minutes in each town on its way".

He used to be afraid the bus would tumble across the Karangahake Gorge bends at its high speeds, but that faded when he noticed they were designed with four wheels at the rear.

"I only wish that ManaBus still provided services. I'm sad from inside. There are many out there who were loyal to ManaBus."

Throughout high school, Imogen Hull, 20, used ManaBus to visit friends throughout the North Island "without spending a fortune".

"I began to sit with strangers and start conversation to pass time. I've been told war stories, tales of world travel, been given career advice, and had a job offer for a finance job in Melbourne once I finish uni."

In June 2016, she took the bus from Wellington to Taupo. There were only two seats left and she sat next to Ed Hounsell. They chatted for eight hours and became close friends.

"We need more services like this, not fewer. Many people from all walks of life rely on affordable transport to visit friends and family. It creates the opportunity to slow down, enjoy the scenery and maybe even meet your new best friend."

Last year, when Murray Waring booked the ManaBus from Bombay to Hamilton to see his aunt, he was interested to see how they would respond to the manual wheelchair he uses to get around with his Cerebral Palsy.

"I was pleasantly surprised to discover the double decker bus had a fold out ramp at the back door, along with a tie down space for my wheelchair.

The driver was "very accommodating and welcoming". He helped Waring on and off the bus, tying his wheelchair down before they left and untying it when they arrived.

"I was hooked, as it meant I had more long distance travel options on the routes the double deckers operated on."

An InterCity spokesman says they had recently acquired several double-decker buses with ramp access and a wheelchair seating area, which will being operating soon.

THE DISRUPTOR

Hamish Nuttall launched NakedBus in October 2006.

On the first day, it carried three people – all at $1 – and Nuttall's son was the first customer. It started in the North Island, with three routes, and grew into a national network by 2007. NakedBus grew to 40 per cent of the whole market in eight years, while the market itself grew by 70 per cent over that time. Some 30 percent were tourists.

InterCity had to respond the new player. Many viewed the competition as healthy. Then it got legal.

On February 17, 2014, the Auckland High Court ruled NakedBus had infringed InterCity's trademark. The ruling said NakedBus ran adverts on Google that would respond to searchers for 'InterCity' and which promoted NakedBus buses as "inter city" in both advertisements and on the website.

Nuttall says, if he had a do-over, he'd avoid "that court situation".

"It didn't cost us a lot of money," Nuttall says. "But it really distracted us from...look, I wouldn't do it again. Although we thought it was important at the time to be able to advertise against what we considered a generic term, what it actually did was just distract us from providing better services.

"We probably took our eye off the ball for a year, which was - lesson learnt, I guess."

When ManaBus - part of the InMotion group that owns Fullers ferry, which is owned by Scottish bus baron Sir Brian Souter - arrived on the scene in October 2014, both InterCity and NakedBus welcomed the competition.

Not long after, ManaBus bought out NakedBus. Nuttall was appointed managing director. Two months later he quit.

"I'd put my heart into NakedBus for eight years," he says, "We developed into a really successful business and I decided that selling it to someone else...that was probably the time to leave."

Nuttall, now chief executive at Think Lazy, a consultancy firm, was saddened to hear the services were stopping.

"It was a really great ride – excuse the pun. We were carrying 700,000 customers a year and they were what made it worthwhile."

He recalls an old lady in Hastings with grandchildren living in Palmerston North. She couldn't afford to visit until the $1 tickets came along.

"She wrote to thank us for that because she was able to get out of Hastings to visit her family.

"That kind of thing made it all worthwhile".

BUS WARS

There's a big dust-up going on in the wider bus industry, and the demise of ManaBus and NakedBus is the latest casualty, says First Union's Graham McKean.

The use of the Public Transport Operating Model (PTOM) to award contracts began rolling out in the past couple of years as old contracts expire. The model aims for public transport to operate in a fully commercial manner with a decreased reliance on subsidies.

This tendering process makes bus companies compete against each other for available routes. PTOM was brought in by the National Government in 2013, and can be linked to the change in contract for the new Wellington bus services, which reportedly caused chaos this week. In May striking Pavlovich drivers called for an alternative tendering model.

The cost of buses, diesel, and infrastructure are largely the same, McKean says. The one variable is the wages.

"The likes of Ritchies, who are one of the parent companies of Intercity, they've been awarded greater runs...effectively their competitive advantage is to pay like a dollar an hour less than the market rate.

"What you're seeing now in the long-haul side of the bus industry is these other companies can't compete."

It's not just the bus industry, he says, it applies to the whole government structure.

"Things are being competitively tendered, forcing cost efficiencies and the lack of reinvestment. You're getting that in schools, hospitals. The little conversation about InterCity, NakedBus and ManaBus reverberates right through the whole of New Zealand society".

A ManaBus spokesperson said Fullers Group (owned by InMotion) was focusing on its ferry operation and servicing the increasing visitors at Hauraki Gulf.

"Consequently, it has sold its ManaBus.com and nakedbus.com fleet to transport coach and bus specialists, Ritchies Transport Holdings."

What's happening in the long-haul side of the bus industry, McKean says, is "these other companies can't compete."

She talks about biting the bullet and paying the $100 airplane fares to get to Taupo. It depends what happens with petrol. You can't drive to Taupo for $33, you could for $64 though (the average price of other bus tickets). Maybe, when she's recovered from surgery, it will get to that point.

Her parents used to come down on NakedBus and driver Paul was a highlight.

"In a previous life he'd been a policeman and he ended up going back to it...he was really, really neat. He used to look after my mum and dad really well.

"I've met some interesting people and passengers,it makes the time go quicker. These days most people put their headphones on or put their head into their cellphones and get into social media," she says as she whips out her old brick phone.

Outside the McDonald's stop in Wellington, passengers disembark. Potter's friend picks her up and the driver checks the bus for belongings, warning: "It will be a while before you can claim them". A desolate pink pram sticks out of the luggage area.

"Is this anyone's?" he asks.

Blank faces.

As he walks away, a passenger, perhaps looking for a cheeky freebie, half-heartedly says, "Oh yeah, yeah, it's mine". - Stuff

 

 

 

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