(04 Sep 2015, 1:14 am)GMitchelhill wrote Colourful branded vehicles such as Coaster, Angel, Fab56 catch the eye more easily and act as a mobile billboard for the service. I find Arrivas Max and Sapphire liveries not as eye catching. And to be honest, I'm not a big fan of the Max livery either.
And at the rate which Arriva's services are being converted to this specification, it'll soon be more eye-catching to see a standard corporate liveried vehicle than a Sapphire or MAX..! Not that I am saying this is a bad thing; after all, I think the fitting of Wi-Fi (at the very least) to new vehicles should be standard, not something to scream and shout about as a 'premium' feature.
Branding will always divide opinion. I'm personally in favour of it, providing it can be managed correctly. From a customer point of view, I can identify my bus from a distance allowing me to prepare for the vehicle arriving in advance; from an enthusiast point of view, there's always a new colourful livery to 'spot' which is one of the more interesting aspects to the hobby in my opinion (due to ongoing fleet standardisation); and from a company point of view, route branding is said to deliver market growth.
With regards to branding being managed correctly; I was stood at Haymarket Bus Station yesterday for ten minutes and saw several Arriva branded vehicles on the wrong routes, and this is where branding gets silly. By comparison, I was at Gateshead and Eldon Square for ten minutes at each location too, and saw no wrong allocations from Go North East. Perhaps I got lucky, but I have seen a significant improvement in recent months. Saw plenty of corporate liveried vehicles covering for branded vehicles, but this is what should happen..!