Reading Buses Boxing Day Surcharge

[RoyalBlue]

But these coaches are rammed, we're looking at an extra £50.00 on top of normally excessive fees for a one way trip. My point is this £1.00 is not going to the driver is it? For example, if there's 50 people on the bus, thats an extra £50.00 - i'd imagine the driver is only getting extra pay of about £20.00 max on that trip; that makes £30.00 going into the money pot of the company every trip (obviously not accurate figures but just a for instance)

From the discussions we had when we looked into this a few seasons ago, I think the big problem for these buses is that the drivers have to be called in for a full shift for just the football buses and when the buses are used they also have to call in other staff in the garage (and presumably someone to supervise them all ) so the costs are a lot more than just the wages paid to the drivers.

I am talking from memory but I wll see if I can find the details somewhere

Whilst this would appear to make sense (typical badly negotiated '70s' style agreement with the unions!), given how full the buses are in comparison to some of the regular services, the surcharge still seems quite hefty.

[Svlad Cjelli]

If it's anything like everywhere else, the drivers and maintenance staff will probably be getting double time for working a public holiday, so the estimate of £20 extra is very, very, low. No idea how that can be rationalised - would you volunteer to give up your boxing day to work for an extra £20? I'd be amazed if anyone would!So the basic assumption on this thread is flawed!

And anyway, assuming that 50p per person wouldn't cover it, would you really want the sucharge to be exactly correct? What would the complaints be like if it wasn't a round figure? Imagine the queues if they asked for an extra 64p from each person.

[weybridgewanderer]

If it's anything like everywhere else, the drivers and maintenance staff will probably be getting double time for working a public holiday, so the estimate of £20 extra is very, very, low. No idea how that can be rationalised - would you volunteer to give up your boxing day to work for an extra £20? I'd be amazed if anyone would!So the basic assumption on this thread is flawed!

And anyway, assuming that 50p per person wouldn't cover it, would you really want the sucharge to be exactly correct? What would the complaints be like if it wasn't a round figure? Imagine the queues if they asked for an extra 64p from each person.

or an increase of say 25p from shire hall, 57p from the station and £2.40 on all the one trip buses?

[RoyalBlue]

If it's anything like everywhere else, the drivers and maintenance staff will probably be getting double time for working a public holiday, so the estimate of £20 extra is very, very, low. No idea how that can be rationalised - would you volunteer to give up your boxing day to work for an extra £20? I'd be amazed if anyone would!So the basic assumption on this thread is flawed!

And anyway, assuming that 50p per person wouldn't cover it, would you really want the sucharge to be exactly correct? What would the complaints be like if it wasn't a round figure? Imagine the queues if they asked for an extra 64p from each person.

Even at double time, I would suggest that there are more than enough people on just a one way trip on each very full bus to more than cover costs.

To the latter point I would say that you country bumpkins ought to get into the 21st Century and go cashless e.g. Oyster. Afterall, you aren't that far from London!

[weybridgewanderer]

FFS, it was ONE pound, get over it

[Red]

Would you volunteer to give up your boxing day to work for an extra £20?

A fair question - but a better one would be why aren't bus drivers given contracts that state that they have to work occasional bank holidays?

People still need to travel around on public holidays.

[readingbedding]

Get over it saddos!

[Red]

Get over it saddos!

But this is all I've got m8

[brendywendy]

FFS, it was ONE pound, get over it

^^^^^^ ^^^^^^