(06 Jan 2016, 10:41 am)scania driver wrote What has been the point of introducing the Sapphire and Max brands, apart from the gimmickry and publicity derived from ? Depots are now routinely ignored the supposed allocations. Take for example the posting where 4644/5 (Max?) are on service 7 to Durham and a Sapphire Pulsar running X75/6. Just one example of many.

For the most time, services run with the correct bus. I would like to suggest that the two MAX buses on the 7 yesterday were not how it started off.

Operational issues can mean that a wrong type is used to fill a gap, rather than drop a trip completely. In an ideal world, supervisors would then get the bus off as soon as possible, but other things can come up which prevent that intervention (driver failures, other breakdowns or situations occuring).

To be fair, allocation generally within Arriva has improved significantly over the past few years and instances such as yesterday are quite rightly given the publicity as it is indeed an unsual occurance.

I dont think you need to press the panic button based on one day.