I've just heard from my cousin who runs a coach company in the south of England that he's likely to cease trading this year.
From what I understand the congestion charge (read as back door tax) was recently increased to ridiculous rates for old vehicles but reduced for new vehicles.
This is great for the environment but not so good for small operators who can't afford to replace their vehicles at a whim from the government, even if the banks would be willing to lend money, which they aren't.
However the large operators can and have effectively lost all their competition in one fell swoop.
Now I'm not one for conspiracy theories but it seems strange that those who run the large tour companies and have mates in powerful positions have benefitted while their competition has been efficiently removed.
Add to that the local council in my cousins area buying their own fleet of buses then bidding against and undercutting the private operators for the local school contracts and one can be forgiven for wondering when the government are going to recognise that private business needs at least a level playing field if we're going to survive.
