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As the legal documenta posted on twitter say, their crash rate was way too high to get the cover they needed for the vehicles which they dont own, maytree were obviously too soft on crashing drivers. They can blame mct for noy paying wages, but they cant blame them for maytree not being able to get insurance... It is sh*t... But not entirely mct's fault

(05/04/2013 14:41)jimbo Wrote: [ -> ]As the legal documenta posted on twitter say, their crash rate was way too high to get the cover they needed for the vehicles which they dont own, maytree were obviously too soft on crashing drivers. They can blame mct for noy paying wages, but they cant blame them for maytree not being able to get insurance... It is sh*t... But not entirely mct's fault

I'm not saying it's there fault, but you seem to live in some fantasy world where MCT come along and save the day, and it ain't gonna happen!

As I understand it, the issues regarding the company were known well before the takeover. When the takeover took place last month Maytree drivers were given assurances that there was a bright future despite the rumours, infact just last week before the Easter weekend drivers were again told there would be no problems with them being paid this week, and then this bombshell happens.
So you can see why the staff are upset with MCT. As far as them and indeed us are concerned, Maytree was (and possibly still is) a part of MCT - who are still trading!

Yeah, sounds like a dirty tactic, but... Think of this: maytree's depot and fleet are worth (madeup) 2million, mct purchase the company who are struggling for 2 million and gamble if they can get it on track, if they do great, if they fail then they have a new fleet and depot for future developments of MCT.... Win-Meh then, no lose, so worth the chance for mct... I dunno... We shall see in the coming weeks

(05/04/2013 16:06)jimbo Wrote: [ -> ]Yeah, sounds like a dirty tactic, but... Think of this: maytree's depot and fleet are worth (madeup) 2million, mct purchase the company who are struggling for 2 million and gamble if they can get it on track, if they do great, if they fail then they have a new fleet and depot for future developments of MCT.... Win-Meh then, no lose, so worth the chance for mct... I dunno... We shall see in the coming weeks

MCT must have known it was struggling though when they did their valuations and tool them over, they must have been fairly confidant they could turn it around in the coming weeks.

But they dont have a new fleet for future development as the fleet was all leased and believe this is why no big national company would buy it out as they basically had no assets,no commercial network and bidded way below the economic figures that they needed to turn a profit on the tenders they won as im led to believe they bidded 1/3 less then any other company did which means they was going to find it hard to turn a profit.

(05/04/2013 18:33)motormayhem Wrote: [ -> ]But they dont have a new fleet for future development as the fleet was all leased and believe this is why no big national company would buy it out as they basically had no assets,no commercial network and bidded way below the economic figures that they needed to turn a profit on the tenders they won as im led to believe they bidded 1/3 less then any other company did which means they was going to find it hard to turn a profit.

Yep. Exactly the same way Speedwell did in Hyde some years earlier. In order to obtain and then keep tenders than barley broke even on them. Their own fleet was old and in poor condition, thier only decent vehicles were leased. So when the pot dried up and they began struggling non of the big boys would go near as it was worthless.
There was clearly something at Maytree that MCT saw potential in. I'm thinking it may have been long term with perhaps some commercial services on the cards but who knows.

The thing with MCTis they may of thought with them being a non profitable company they may of thought they could do something with it due to it not having high profit margins and then relised they bitten off more than they can chew as because there are no assets and the tenders was so low they seriously couldnt afford to insure the veichles and pay out more than what was coming in,if they had company assets and more of a commercial network then things would of been different as well if the tenders wasnt tenderd for so low.

(05/04/2013 18:58)motormayhem Wrote: [ -> ]The thing with MCTis they may of thought with them being a non profitable company they may of thought they could do something with it due to it not having high profit margins and then relised they bitten off more than they can chew as because there are no assets and the tenders was so low they seriously couldnt afford to insure the veichles and pay out more than what was coming in,if they had company assets and more of a commercial network then things would of been different as well if the tenders wasnt tenderd for so low.

True, but if that was the case wouldn't MCT have merged the Maytree business into their own?
I always found it strange that the plan was to run Maytree as a subsidiary of MCT and not as one, yet the main reason behind the takeover was to give MCT a bigger presence in Greater Manchester.
As for tenders. I've always been told a tender is never an asset. Even a well paid 5 year tender can be lost at anytime if say for example a rival firm registered the same tendered service commercially.
Larger companies only view commercial services as viable assets, Bluebird had a nice network of commercial services which were attractive to Stagecoach. They probably didn't give a second thought to the tenders - hence they were lost to MCT a month later anyway.

Good news though!! Apparently all the Maytree drivers got paid tonight.

Bluebird lost their tenders off their own back - Stagecoach had nothing to do with it.

So, First have announced they'll be running the 31 (Mon-Sat daytime), 95 (Mon-Sat daytime between Whitefield and Pendleton), 507 (evenings), 510 (M-S eves), 519 (M-S eves), 525/527 (M-S day), 561/562 (eves), 571/572 (eves) and 575 (M-S evs), SLT will run the 516 (M-S eves), 551, 583 (Sun day), 584 (M-S eves), 597 (M-F eves/Sun day), 612 (Sat eves/Sun day) and 622 (Sundays), while Rossendalebus will take over the 273 Sunday daytime.

Still waiting for details on who will operate some of the ex-Maytree services, with Arriva, JPT, Stagecoach and RS Tyrer potential operators:

*96 Simister-Manchester - Monday
*495 Prestwich-Simister - Saturday
*512/513 Bolton-Bury - Monday
*525 Bolton-Haliwell circular (eve/Sun journeys) - Monday
*526 Bolton-Barrow Bridge - Monday
*527 Bolton-Haliwell circular (eve/Sun journeys) - Sunday
*534 Bolton-Oldhams Estate - Monday
*536 Bolton-Breightmet (Mon-Sat eve/Sun daytime) - Monday
*538/539 Bolton-Egerton circulars (Mon-Sat eve/Sun daytime) - Monday
*544 Bolton-Little Lever - Monday
*553 Bolton-Leigh - Monday
*559 Bolton-Aspull - Monday
*570 Bolton-Sutton Estate - Monday
*576 Bolton-Wigan (Mon-Sat eve) - Monday
*583 Leigh-Hag Fold (Mon-Sat eve) - Monday
*597 Leigh Sports Village-Leigh Infirmary (Mon-Sat daytime)
*622 Wigan-Kitt Green circular (Mon-Sat eves)
*714 Bolton-Aspull - Monday
*715 Bolton-Wigan (eve/Sun) - Sunday

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