New Deliveries / New Livery & Branding Discussion

[Tony]

because they are smaller operators as you said which likely cannot afford it unlike nxwm which have a huge monopoly over the west midlands area (literally 93% of services) and bring in record profits year over year (197.3 million in 2023)

i don't know but to me it just makes sense to maybe put an ounce of care into how your equipment looks when its being used on 93% of the west midlands's bus services.

National Express West Midlands made a loss in 2023 without the government subsidy, a subsidy which is to be used on providing a service.

Not sure how 93% is a monopoly either.

[Wumpty]

because they are smaller operators as you said which likely cannot afford it unlike nxwm which have a huge monopoly over the west midlands area (literally 93% of services) and bring in record profits year over year (197.3 million in 2023)

i don't know but to me it just makes sense to maybe put an ounce of care into how your equipment looks when its being used on 93% of the west midlands's bus services.

Smaller operators usually have lower overheads, a smaller fleet, lower wages and greater control over their budgets, meaning they'd probably have a greater ability to control how their fleet looks. 

I've worked for small and large bus companies and can assure you that it's easier to effect change, conditions and liveries/appearance of a fleet in a smaller company than it is at a larger one.

As @winston  has already clarified, NX Bus don't make the levels of profit that you claim it does - hence why livery restoration clauses are negotiated with advertising companies when full wraps are removed to keep the costs to NX Bus down.

NX have inherited their "93% monopoly" post deregulation, mergers and acquisitions and by investing heavily in services and their fleet - every company that has gone into competition against NX Bus have seen how difficult it is to invest and maintain the levels that NX Bus have across all areas of service provision.

What's even more complex is the evolution of the liveries and complexities of each one, and I think NX do a damned good job at maintaining each one and ensure the passengers can tell which one of the plethora of operators is an NX bus from a distance.