(21/03/2015 23:10)Barney Wrote:  Neither. Under the current deregulated set-up there is no joined-up thinking. Each company's route stands or falls on its own merit. It might surprise our younger readers that once upon a time dead mileage was virtually unheard of and buses earned their keep as soon as they left the depot but those days have gone.

(22/03/2015 09:13)Mayneway Wrote:  Absolutely true. Although I'm not old enough to remember regulated bus transport I do remember that a company I followed very closly, Maynes of Manchester, saw a lot of thier services start and finish at thier depot on Ashton new Road, but as you say it's very rare now to see the larger companies run positioning journeys etc, instead choosing to run dead.

(22/03/2015 11:57)YJ59 AZA Wrote:  It's odd (unless I've missed something about it) that companies don't run buses in service to/from places (particularly ones that are far away from each-other) to start on their main service(s) for the day/night. Even if they don't pick anybody up (but if they did, it'd be an added bonus), they're still eligible to claim BSOG for the mileage. The timings could be exactly the same as they would be if running dead, albeit with a few additional timing points if the journey is long. If the buses are going to a particular location, they may as-well open the doors to potential passengers.

Ace Travel did this quite a bit - as do Avon, especially with their cross-river positioning services.

(22/03/2015 18:21)Dentonian Wrote:  The downside to registering "positioning" trips, is that additional running time would be needed, compared to dead running, thus increasing duty hours and (possibly) sending the driver out of hours. There is also the problem that everytime you re-register the journey the bus is running on/off, you have to re-register the positioing trips. How much does each registration variation cost nowadays? £64 last I heard. Strange how things were so much more flexible and less bureaucratic when buses were regulated!!!