New Deliveries / New Livery & Branding Discussion

[Tony]

There's more to it than that though:

For example, contracts can be negotiated, an alternative supplier could have been procured and ultimately, in any market it's a buyers market!

Alright then, name anyone else in the UK doing "Electric transport as a service" (ETaaS) contracts?

Yes, It's a buyers market and NX went with the best one to suit them which is the current Zenobe deal

[2900]

That has taken 4 times longer to paint, and cost 3 times as much, hence why most buses around the country are going one colour (Stagecoach, London, Manchester) or sometimes 2 (First).

Single colour repaint is

prep, mask (one day), undercoat, bake, top coat, bake, varnish, bake (one day), apply vinyls. (0.5 days)

This one was prep, mask undercoat, bake, re-mask for khaki, paint, bake, re-mask for cream, paint, bake, re-mask for blue, very time consuming due to thin lines, paint, bake, re-mask for complete bus, varnish, bake, apply vinyls. Now while the prep & vinyls take the same time the painting took 4 days, not 1.

Cost of labour, paint, materials is horrific , I still am involved in the motor trade the prices are very sobering
I kinda like the single colours and vinyl grafics

[Tony]

Cost of labour, paint, materials is horrific , I still am involved in the motor trade the prices are very sobering
I kinda like the single colours and vinyl grafics

Biggest cost is the gas to bake the paint dry, hence why multicolours add so much to the cost

[The Real 4777]

Alright then, name anyone else in the UK doing "Electric transport as a service" (ETaaS) contracts?

Yes, It's a buyers market and NX went with the best one to suit them which is the current Zenobe deal

All understandable of course, National Express is there to make money, but from an observer's or enthusiast's perspective it's a crusade towards uniformity like never before. 

I'm from a railway operating background and I totally get it, but local buses are heading much like today's railway, deeply uninteresting to me, having known the variety and heritage of what went before.

[j789]

All understandable of course, National Express is there to make money, but from an observer's or enthusiast's perspective it's a crusade towards uniformity like never before.

I'm from a railway operating background and I totally get it, but local buses are heading much like today's railway, deeply uninteresting to me, having known the variety and heritage of what went before.

Unfortunately those days are gone, as just like the railway of the past, it lost huge amounts of public money subsidising all those loss making routes.

I'd love to go back to the days of all those independents (after WMPTE/WMT I always like Wilts and Dorset and Yellow Buses the best as it had the memories of holidays attached. Sadly, the costs today mean that these original al companies had to get absorbed by the bigger groups to survive. Loss of local identity for sure but at least there are still buses running.

Compare it to what happened with Beeching etc, the buses got off lightly compared to the railways.

[The Real 4777]

Off-topic I know, but I wasn't referring to pre-Beeching, but the Business Sector era onwards, 1985 or so. And that was a very efficient industry, with much lower public subsidy than now.

[j789]

Off-topic I know, but I wasn't referring to pre-Beeching, but the Business Sector era onwards, 1985 or so. And that was a very efficient industry, with much lower public subsidy than now.

Fair enough, but I guess even that is 40 years back now (where has that time gone?) and with less paying passengers these days, higher expenses, etc etc, it all comes down to economies of scale. Lots of Independent companies just wouldn't be viable these days.

On a different note, has NX Ex ever thought about asking for enthusiast donations towards the cost of painting a few buses in specific historical liveries? I'm sure enough people would be willing to contribute to cover the additional cost over a basic repaint.

[Mayfield]

Try nearly 60 years

[Tony]

Try nearly 60 years

Business sectors were in the 1980s that's only 40 years ago

[Mayfield]

Sorry thought they meant Beeching

[2900]

Fair enough, but I guess even that is 40 years back now (where has that time gone?) and with less paying passengers these days, higher expenses, etc etc, it all comes down to economies of scale. Lots of Independent companies just wouldn't be viable these days.

On a different note, has NX Ex ever thought about asking for enthusiast donations towards the cost of painting a few buses in specific historical liveries? I'm sure enough people would be willing to contribute to cover the additional cost over a basic repaint.

You could set up a go fund me page etc etc,  I get the idea keep folks engaged in local transport,  one could email the mayor about keeping heritage liverys going in future. 

[RW]

You are not correct. Zenobe don't lease specific vehicles,  they lease a fixed number of vehicles and Zenobe can request a swap at any time, so not giving chance to return the vehicle to stock livery


The rules with Zenobe are they must be just one 'neutral' colour. The other operator using Zenobe is Newport who are all over lime green

So what constitutes a 'neutral' colour? Surely depressing 'grey' isn't the only colour that complies with that rule. Lime green for a start.

[Stevo]

So are overall adverts permitted on Zenobe leases?

[2900]

So are overall adverts permitted on Zenobe leases?

It's not permanent really is it, as Tony has said any paintwork damage will be in the contract 

[Coventrybususer95]

So are overall adverts permitted on Zenobe leases?

Yes cv had a few for an e-on contract