Go Goodwins

[Mayneway]

RE: Go Goodwins

(16/03/2019 14:08)iMarkeh Wrote:  Could it be that they put in a stupid price not expecting to win and then it just so happened that they were the lowest bidder. It keeps people employed and if you are putting in a daft price, you are making a fair bit of profit on it.

That's just it though their argument for selling out up rotala was because they were loosing coach and tour work because of negative comments on google etc from bemused bus users making negative comments because a contracted bus service they operated turned up 5 mins late. Why would they even be bidding for tenders if they have vowed not to touch that kind of work again. As for making a big profit I highly doubt it. With ops like MCT around there can't be much In it.

[iMarkeh]

RE: Go Goodwins

(16/03/2019 14:58)Mayneway Wrote:  That's just it though their argument for selling out up rotala was because they were loosing coach and tour work because of negative comments on google etc from bemused bus users making negative comments because a contracted bus service they operated turned up 5 mins late. Why would they even be bidding for tenders if they have vowed not to touch that kind of work again. As for making a big profit I highly doubt it. With ops like MCT around there can't be much In it.

You can always put in a stupidly high price. You don't want it but if you win it, you make a lot of money. If you don't win, well, you didn't want it anyway. It could just be the case that no one else put in for it. The only way of knowing would be to see the TFGM award sheets (i don't know if they do something similar to West Midlands where they put out a PDF of who has won all the tenders and the lowest price, how many tenderers etc).

[Mayneway]

RE: Go Goodwins

(16/03/2019 15:06)iMarkeh Wrote:  You can always put in a stupidly high price. You don't want it but if you win it, you make a lot of money. If you don't win, well, you didn't want it anyway. It could just be the case that no one else put in for it. The only way of knowing would be to see the TFGM award sheets (i don't know if they do something similar to West Midlands where they put out a PDF of who has won all the tenders and the lowest price, how many tenderers etc).

But as I've said with operators like MCT with around an additional 20 ops disks to play with they will almost certainly be putting low prices in for any contracts that come up.

[Raawwwrrr!]

RE: Go Goodwins
I would imagine going back to public bus services may be partially due to the fact that there is a national shortage of bus drivers. Go Goodwins operate a large number of schools, private hires and touring business but this does not guarantee a set number of hours every week.

If I was going for a driving role personally I’d be more attracted to a company that can guarantee me a regular wage and not just two hours of school services each day and the occasional private hire.

[Mayneway]

RE: Go Goodwins

(16/03/2019 18:08)Raawwwrrr! Wrote:  I would imagine going back to public bus services may be partially due to the fact that there is a national shortage of bus drivers. Go Goodwins operate a large number of schools, private hires and touring business but this does not guarantee a set number of hours every week.

If I was going for a driving role personally I’d be more attracted to a company that can guarantee me a regular wage and not just two hours of school services each day and the occasional private hire.

Still doesn't solve the issue of negative feed back they were so concerned about last time. Also the firm im with ditched private hire, swimming baths and school trip work a few years ago because it was so complicated with drivers switching between EU and domestic hours etc. I would have thought they would have a seperate set of drivers solely for the service work.

[knutstransport]

RE: Go Goodwins

(16/03/2019 18:08)Raawwwrrr! Wrote:  I would imagine going back to public bus services may be partially due to the fact that there is a national shortage of bus drivers. Go Goodwins operate a large number of schools, private hires and touring business but this does not guarantee a set number of hours every week.

If I was going for a driving role personally I’d be more attracted to a company that can guarantee me a regular wage and not just two hours of school services each day and the occasional private hire.

I don't know if it's still the case but coach hire companies with school contracts quite often had drivers who had decided they were too old to drive full time but didn't want to give up work altogether.

[knutstransport]

RE: Go Goodwins

(16/03/2019 19:36)Mayneway Wrote:  Still doesn't solve the issue of negative feed back they were so concerned about last time. Also the firm im with ditched private hire, swimming baths and school trip work a few years ago because it was so complicated with drivers switching between EU and domestic hours etc. I would have thought they would have a seperate set of drivers solely for the service work.

In around 1999 Cheshire County Council purchased 3 yellow Bluebird buses for St Nicholas to Winsford services and employing drivers to do the work. They also ended up doing swimming bath trips, school trips etc. for schools in the Northwich area as well but coach companies like Walkers, Barratts and Byley still got school trip work as well especially for long/residential trips.

[djb]

RE: Go Goodwins

(16/03/2019 19:36)Mayneway Wrote:  Still doesn't solve the issue of negative feed back they were so concerned about last time. Also the firm im with ditched private hire, swimming baths and school trip work a few years ago because it was so complicated with drivers switching between EU and domestic hours etc. I would have thought they would have a seperate set of drivers solely for the service work.

Tbh I agree with your earlier comment about them being a strange outfit.

Don’t get me wrong, they’re not cowboys, or anything bad, but from the outside they seem almost impulsive at times. They seem to regularly get a new focus, invest in it, publicise it, then almost lose interest again. - goodwins buses, the go1/2 commercial services, little gem, goodwins classic coaches, Manchester bee, plus a succession of short term Fleet additions that get high spec liveries then sold on a short while later.

[gilesbus1]

RE: Go Goodwins

(16/03/2019 20:27)djb Wrote:  Tbh I agree with your earlier comment about them being a strange outfit.

Don’t get me wrong, they’re not cowboys, or anything bad, but from the outside they seem almost impulsive at times. They seem to regularly get a new focus, invest in it, publicise it, then almost lose interest again. - goodwins buses, the go1/2 commercial services, little gem, goodwins classic coaches, Manchester bee, plus a succession of short term Fleet additions that get high spec liveries then sold on a short while later.

Yep I'd go with that seem to get excited then seem to over invest in it so much so the bank manager probably tells them to prune it back. Maybe the real reason for the sale of Little Gem to Rotala wasn't what they were saying but maybe a need to raise capital for the coach fleet, perhaps. Perhaps the same applies to the classic coaches side that they tried to build up, maybe not raising the income they thought it would, therefore closed down and the coaches sold on. Suspect what may be needed is to concentrate on the core business and core customers first, and build the business up that way. Some projects have been perhaps a little extravagant like the purchase of two E400MMC deckers and an E200MMC for school contracts, hence why they've realised its not a good idea and sold them on.

[Mayneway]

RE: Go Goodwins

(17/03/2019 00:55)gilesbus1 Wrote:  Yep I'd go with that seem to get excited then seem to over invest in it so much so the bank manager probably tells them to prune it back. Maybe the real reason for the sale of Little Gem to Rotala wasn't what they were saying but maybe a need to raise capital for the coach fleet, perhaps. Perhaps the same applies to the classic coaches side that they tried to build up, maybe not raising the income they thought it would, therefore closed down and the coaches sold on. Suspect what may be needed is to concentrate on the core business and core customers first, and build the business up that way. Some projects have been perhaps a little extravagant like the purchase of two E400MMC deckers and an E200MMC for school contracts, hence why they've realised its not a good idea and sold them on.

The purchase of the MMC's then their sale soon after was funny. There was a Big who har on the psv circle enthusiasts page on Facebook suggesting they were short of cash with the sale of the MMC's. One of the Goodwins responded saying the MMC's were slowly being vandalised by the school kids on the regular school runs they worked so they had decided to sell and replace with ex London stock. Surly given the number of years they have run their commercial school runs they would have some idea what the kids would do to brand new buses.