In the latest UKCOA member interview, Peter Bradley converses with Clive and Heather Edwards of Taf Valley Coaches of Whitland
Like many, I love the beauty of the countryside and coastal areas of the UK, and one of the little gems which is often overlooked is that of Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire in South Wales. Taf Valley Coaches has the best of both worlds, as it is located just outside the village of Whitland on the border of those two local authorities.
Taf Valley had modest beginnings in 1990 as described by Director Clive Edwards: “We started off with just one coach, a Ford Duple Dominant, purchased with the assistance of the Prince’s Youth Trust to operate a school contract. We rented a space in a local car park for the coach and operated the business from a terraced house.”
However, from that modest start the business grew. It moved to its current base just outside of Whitland in 1994 and the premises have continued to grow in size. The operator’s first new coach was purchased in 1997 and just two years later Taf Valley commenced a small tour programme – Taf Valley Holidays. Until the COVID-19 pandemic it was operating 60 tours a year from three to nine days’ duration, plus a number of day trips.
Clive and partner Heather describe the other work they do: “We now have 45 vehicles employed on school and college work (including home-to-school transport), private hire and local bus services, as well as our tour programme.”
Expansion continues to be a real focus for the company. Just a few years ago Taf Valley extended its original yard and built a new three bay workshop with two pits and lifts. It also built a new office which includes a training room. “We did it all ourselves,” Clive exclaims proudly. “Which just gives us that extra bit of satisfaction.”
It didn’t stop there. On 27 January 2020, just weeks before the first national lockdown, Taf Valley Coaches took on a second site at Pembroke Dock from Edwards Coaches of Pontypridd and added some further local bus services to its portfolio. All its bus routes now run from this location. “We added a new office and cleaned up the yard,” Heather adds, “but little knowing what just lay around the corner.”
The expansion also involved personnel when Joseff, the couple’s son, joined the family firm a couple of years ago, providing some much-needed support.
Clive and Heather are philosophical about the pandemic. “We have survived so far,” says Clive, “and I believe that is largely down to having the diversity of work. I feel very sorry for those coach operators which specialise in a particular field such as holidays; they have been though an incredibly tough time.”
When asked about the greatest challenge facing the coach industry, Clive and Heather have no hesitation in saying it is PSVAR. “We have one coach away at present being retrofitted to achieve PSVAR compliance,” they explain. “But delays to the supply of parts caused by the pandemic mean that they will not be delivered until June. In turn we will not see the coach back in the yard until September. That is an awfully long time”.
Clive also brings up one of the main concerns of a number of UK Coach Operators Association (UKCOA) members, that of the infrastructure provided at picking up and setting down points that will allow a wheelchair lift on a coach to be deployed. “On one route,” Clive muses, “I have 18 pick up points along a single-track road. There is only one place where I could deploy a lift without the removal of a substantial section of the farmer’s hedge. That is simply not going to happen.”
Clive is very enthusiastic about being a member of the UKCOA and other trade bodies: “The world can be a very lonely place at 0200hrs when you need assistance. Networking in this industry is vital so we can help each other out.”
I look forward to the day when I can meet Heather and Clive in person and drink a welcome cup of coffee that was kindly offered to me when I am able to visit them in Whitland.