When in need of a relatively standard-specification new coach at short notice via a contract award, an uplift in private hire or any other reason that can pressure a fleet, the answer for many operators in the past was relatively simple.
Get in the car, tour the dealers, come home and decide which stock vehicle(s) to buy. Make the necessary arrangements and then a few weeks later return to collect.
That approach seldom worked if a customised, bespoke or specialised build was required, and there remain pockets of stock coaches available from manufacturers that have the scale and capacity to satisfy an ongoing Europe-wide hot streak of demand.
But buildings full of unregistered vehicles sitting in some cases for over a year awaiting sale is now a distant memory, with some on the supply side of the industry suggesting that those days have gone for good.
Changes to vehicle availability are not unprecedented. It is said by one longstanding sector member than in the late-1990s, former National Express coaches parked at the Plaxton site in Anston awaiting new homes could be seen from space, such was their number. Imagine that now.
There is an expectation that ultimately, the new coach market will return to the position it enjoyed until 2020: Country-by-country demand fluctuated but largely balanced out across Europe, and so a year of higher-than-average sales in one nation could be satisfied as there were inevitably others where numbers were lower than usual.
Yet the days of sometimes 50 or more stock coaches waiting quietly on a dealer’s premises for a signature on an order form are unlikely to return, the consensus goes. Stock orders are still placed, but it seems that few such vehicles remain without a name on them upon arrival here, having been sold in the meantime.
Tying up capital in large numbers of unsold vehicles is unfavourable, and for some dealers the fight for build slots – and it often is a fight, says one – is an ongoing test. Operating coaches may be challenging, but so too is supplying them.
The counter to worries about lead times for new vehicles is made by a former operator. They believe that in some cases it can ultimately benefit both buyer and seller, as it fosters long-term planning and business development and gives an extended horizon on demand for the supplier.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that second-hand coach values are starting to soften after several years of unprecedented highs. Reasons for that are no doubt many, and it hints at availability in the used field improving.
But call for new coaches remains strong, and lead times for many manufacturers reflect that. Further expensive challenges for those builders are in store, not least development around Euro VII and zero-emission. Touring dealers and choosing from stock on site might indeed now be the exception rather than the norm.
