Another award for Brighton and a feather in the cap for Brighton’s energetic busman. Awards keep tumbling Brighton’s way. Will they ever cease so that the rest of us have a chance? At the Oscars Brighton & Hove won the city bus operator of the year in 2010, the same award in 2009 plus adding overall bus operator of the year. And the list goes one.
This time, though, it’s not quite as it seems for it’s not Roger French but Tim Druitt of The Big Lemon who’s taken the honours. With its eclectic fleet of elderly step entrance vehicles, cooking waste fuel and community interest company, The BL has won the “EU Urban Network of Social Enterprises ‘Ethiconomy’ award for projects with social and environmental benefits”. Typically of European projects, the title’s certainly full size.
Druitt can now add international recognition to the large numbers of Brighton people said to support his survival campaign
The BL’s view of the world is that it has competed with B&H in “a spirit of fair and friendly competition since we started”. B&H might feel differently, though French has always been careful to welcome competition.
B&H has now reduced its fares to The BL’s level. “This policy is jeopardising the future of
Perhaps The BL’s award may help raise its David-like profile against its neighbouring Goliath. But, so long as fares remain the same, we suspect that passengers will continue to get on the first bus that comes. Always supposing, of course, that B&H is competing fairly & legally and not losing money in an action that amounts to predation. That would be a kind of perdition.
Fairly and legally. That’s a matter for the competition authorities though in spite of its best efforts, The BL has been unable to garner the support of the OFT. The OFT points to Competition Commission inquiry into the bus industry. Will this be a panacea for Lemon? And by the time it’s *fully* published—a Christmas present in 2011 though provisional findings are due this month (!)—one of the two Brighton operators may even be out of business.
i Save The Big Lemon
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Raising the Profile
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10 comments:
Big Lemon is only doing what all 'cowboy' operators do - throw tatty old heaps onto a quality route and then shout 'foul' when the major operator eventually reacts.
Time for him to shut up - and move on/away.
Equally, time for the big operators to engage in fair competition rather than using their power to crush a competitor.
They'd be the ones crying foul in the event of re-regulation.
It's Tom Druitt, not Tim.
"Equally, time for the big operators to engage in fair competition rather than using their power to crush a competitor."
How do they go about "fair competition" then. They either just sit there, or reduce fares or increase services (the latter two being seen as 'unfair').
Really, what else can they do?
*sit there doing nothing.
How can price matching possibly be regarded as 'unfair'? It's what every retailer does.
Actually fair competition is charging at p=MC. However seeing as bus travel is a natural monopoly (MC close to zero *sometimes*) then you are taking surplus 'unfairly' naturally somewhere sometime anyway.
Er. Brighton and Hove have *not* matched the Big Lemon. A single on BL is £1.50, while a B&H single ticket from Brighton to the uni is £1.80
It is the day saver that has been reduced to £2.50. Admittedly this is the same as BL
So what's so 'unique' and special about Big Lemon. If he can carve a niche that's fine, but it looks more like he wants a company that invests heavily and delivers consistently recognised high quality services to cut him a niche. What does he pay his staff - hourly artes, pension, overtime, paid holiday, conditions, by the way? Does anyone know how it compares to B&H?
I think Mr Druitt started with good enough intentions, although it does seem that he expected to just stick elderly sheds onto a route already operated by a large company with modern buses and seemingly expected that they wouldn't react or would leave him to it. Sadly, competition doesn't work that way and crying to the press about it won't help anything. If the Lemon had based themselves more along the lines of Norfolk Green, an independent who has carved themselves a very successful high quality niche against a poor quality incumbent operator, then he would have had more of a chance.
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