(03 Jun 2014, 10:23 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Will have to keep my eyes open next time I pop round to the folks (the 37 is the only bus that serves their estate), with the house in view of the bus stop.
As I say, it tends to be the Bluebird whenever I am round theirs - but if your enthusiast friend says it is the van, so be it...

Mind, I never said there was a quality issue with the GNE allocation to the 37 or any other bus that is allocated to it, commenting on the fact a Solo is the usual allocation...

What I did say, was that they have a record - look at the fines for non-compliance.

I haven't done any maths, but it will be interesting to see fines vs the fleet size/suitable vehicles to see if these smaller independents are as bad as made out.

I can't do anything other than repeat myself, and as I'm sure you've read my posts, I shan't.

Regarding fleet size - should we not be looking at spare vehicle percentage at each depot (or overall company) opposed to the fleet size in total? I'm not aware of any documents available on the public domain that do allow us to have such information, though

We must remember that Go North East often don't have control over the amount of spare vehicles that they have, as Go-Ahead will set group targets in which operators have to comply. If they set a target of 12% spare vehicles at each depot, Percy Main can't be having 18% whilst a depot for Brighton and Hove is actually meeting the 12% target.

Smaller independents such as CCT do have control over this - their limiting factor is the amount of revenue which they generate. Mind, that's not a great deal, given the amount of fines they get!