(28 Dec 2016, 7:48 pm)Adrian wrote But it is irrelevant if the customer understands the business behind it or not. There seems to quite often be the misconception that the consumer cares about how a company achieves it's margins, how it justifies it mark up pricing or what not. It is not their concern, and quite frankly most of them will not care. It is up to a business to remain competitive but still provide a product or service to meet the customer's expectations at a price where they feel value. Otherwise, and quite simply, they'll go elsewhere.
Unfortunately, the majority of bus operators' customers' do not have that choice, because competition is so scarce. They find that the only alternative is often to learn to drive/take the car.
Exactly - there is competition on all routes - the car! Just because only one operator runs a service doesn't mean there is no competition. It's in the operators interest to run a quality service where people want to go, otherwise they'll use a car instead, and operators won't have a business anymore. there's no point having two operators run a service and neither of them carry enough passengers to cover costs