(08 Nov 2016, 9:37 pm)South Tyne Lad wrote Spirit had Ceatano bodied Darts which were new around the same time as PCLs ( 2002 ) but I didn't really take notice back then about Maintenance issues.
Moving from the fleet of Darts to the single E200 will have improved the economics of the company, But Steve kept everything Local, Including the Maintenance ( He used the local Mechanic I believe ) while PCL will no doubt have a few PLCs to deal with, Which will reduce the profit of the services. ( Might be wrong with this )
Bit of a loose loose situation imo, Newer vehicle gets more attention and provides better service, Pushing up profits but cost's more to lease.
While a Older Vehicle will be better suited economically to a lesser demand route like this, So Id say PCL are right in taking the older Darts, But just a bit TLC would keep them running a bit more reliably, Pushing up profits?
Sorry if non of this makes sense, I'm typing on my phone.
And all of that comes down to cash flow.
It is OK having thousands of pounds tied up in assets, but you need cash to hand to finance the maintenance and titivating.
To go back to your point about keeping it in-house. That in itself will have cost. You either have a multi-skilled driver/fitter/jack of all trades or a dedicated member of staff. That's without the costs involved in purchasing and maintaining equipment and tools. Or you pay someone to do it.
Just to tie this in with the big-boys. After de-reg in 86 (when assets were bought from the government/taxpayer), it was a good few years before the likes of United, Northumbria or Go-ahead were able to finance the purchase of new vehicles. Go-ahead's first purchase from memory was a handful of Lynx's, Alexander Olympians in and the G RTY Delta's circa 1990. That was despite having stock from the 70's on front line service. The last lot of deckers would have been the C OCN Metrobuses and C LJR Olympians 7/8 years previous.
If it takes a PLC 4 or 5 years to purchase new vehicles, you can see how difficult it is for an independent like PCL.
Edit: Completely forgot the MiniLink/bread vans! A clear example of trying to open up new revenue streams.