Taxi Driver Online

Rural taxi operators concerns come true as Conwy overspends on school transport

Mar 15 2012 by Samantha Castle, North Wales Weekly News

CONWY Valley taxi operators are concerned for their future following a shock overspend of almost £300,000 by Conwy County Council on the Home to School Transport Service.

Since the running of the service was taken on jointly by Conwy and Denbighshire in February 2011, there has been a projected 20% overspend, which has only been predicted in the last few weeks.

However, Conwy Taxi Operators Group – who supply taxis and minibuses to take pupils to school in the Valley – claim they had flagged up a risk of overspending as long as 18 months ago, to no avail.

Now Conwy cabinet members have demanded an internal audit to work out why the overspend was not projected much sooner. The extra bill will have to be paid for using general balances, and a £48,0000 reserve.

The service, which uses taxis, buses and minibuses to take pupils to school, cost £290,000 more than it should have done this year.

The overspend was not projected until a few weeks ago and could affect rural taxi operators who provide school-run services in the Conwy Valley.

Cabinet members resolved on Tuesday for an internal audit to review the process to identify why the overspend was not projected earlier in the financial year.

Highways and infrastructure portfolio holder Joan Vaughn told cabinet on Tuesday the net overspend will need to be funded from general balances in the first instance pending closure of the accounts for 2011/12.

Cllr Mike Priestly said: "The news of the overspend is a bombshell. If this is what a collaboration means I do not know what to say, it’s like a kick in the teeth." Cllr Ronnie Hughes added: "I cannot understand how this has happened."

Head of Audit Mike Halstead said the report would not be ready to review until mid-April.

Finance chief Andrew Kirkham added that there are fewer school days in 2013/14 than in 2011/12, so the next budget for school transport will not be the same.

Operators, however, claimed they raised concerns over the way contracts were awarded 18 months ago. In a letter to Conwy Council, Conwy Taxi Operators Group said: "Some of the contract schedules appear inaccurate or impossible to perform. Operators have expressed concern they may win a three-year contract but have little faith that this will be honoured beyond July."

They added that before the service was run jointly by the two authorities, there had never been an overspend.: "Before the takeover of Conwy by Denbighshire, we had it on good authority that there had never been and overspend within the Conwy school transport department.

"The tendering process in 2010 caused operators to battle against each other to win contracts at unsustainable prices," added the letter.

"These figures were used to set the budget for Conwy. Once these operators realised this, they withdrew from them and they were put out on emergency tender or renegotiated at higher prices.

"We have been telling Denbighshire Council this since they took over, but they are operating a closed door policy, there is a lack of confidence among Conwy operators regarding the way the service has been set up and is continuously failing the Conwy home to school transport service."

They added: "If operators from the Conwy Valley lose tenders the area will lose its private hire firms, it’s as simple as that, as we all rely on the contracts with the authority. That will ultimately have a knock-on effect on other private hire services."

"The audit review will provide greater detail on the reasons for the overspend by the time the next school year starts."

Guto Bebb, MP for Aberconwy, agreed: "There is a huge question mark over the cross county working here. The lack of communication between the council and operators does not make commercial sense.

"There is no way Conwy can argue that this has crept up on them as there is evidence of unanswered letter and emails flagging this up months ago."

The results of the audit are due mid-April.

A coarse evaluation of the projected budget for 2011/12 indicated the variances in expenditure: Additional learning needs transport +20% cost increase and Taxis and Minibuses +15.

Cllr Vaughn’s recommendations that the findings of the internal audit review is reported back to Cabinet, appropriate processes for forecasting the spending profile are then put into place and that the budget provision for home to school transport is reviewed in respect of 2013/14 were agreed.

Source: North Wales Weekly News

Sounds like some operators have been greedy.

No, I sounds like some operators had previously put in low prices that they could not sustain and the council wanted them to continue to lose money.

_________________
Grandad,

Sounds Familiar....

id love to hear how you work that out, the lowest bid wins, if thats greed im the Pope

no, ill tell you the problem, school transport being granted when the parents dont need it, it should be means tested, not like it is where the fact a pupil is proven to need the extra help (statmented) means the taxi is free

i have 2 that could easily pay but get it free, big houses, 2 cars, mum and dad at home each evening when i drop em off....

also being North Wales i bet a lot of it is for transport to welsh language centres, cos our kids got sent to them 20 years ago, and got not benefit from it, like all the adverts for jobs in the papers where they must advertise in English and Welsh (in the papers) costing double.....

_________________
Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

im 3 years into a 4 year contract, if id gone in bare bones then id be running on fumes now

_________________
Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Blood is on about a company up here who undercut everyone and found out they could not do the runs as it was costing them more in fuel and other running costs, they handed them back to the council or tried to, so it looks like the council have paid them more money as the company is still doing them

You don't overbid for a Contract job then? I know several firms who are getting £15 for a ½ mile journey in the morning then the same for the afternoon run.

You mean they were taking your advice about discounting Skippy?

That's one of the golden rules of the trade - the biggest moaners about discounting tend to be those discounting themselves.

Maybe the council just said that there's a contract and they have to stick to it, ie as in the real world.

The world would grind to a halt if everyone just pulled out a contract if they changed their minds.

I asked the Council, they Said they wouldnt pay them more money..but that means bugger all!!

I also see a few Runs up for renewal as from the Start of 2012/13 School year....And those have come up for Tender 3 years early. Im thinking that Cooncils terminating a few of the so called " Higher Rated Contract Winners" very very soon....and not soon enough as far as Im concerned as these Clowns took all the Best and Biggest runs because of wrongly pricing tenders...and even if these tenders come up again then the likes of us that had to settle for the less profitable runs will be locked in to these runs for a further 3 years as we do not have the Capacity to take on the more profitable Extra runs which may or may not become available soon.

Talk about feching Idiots....the Idiots who tendered wrongly will still win overall, and we that tendered correctly and possibly cheaper per passenger mile will lose out, How unfair is that???

So by "wrongly priced" tender you mean cheaper than you bloodknock?

And no guff about running at a loss please, because you refer to these runs as "the most profitable ones".

They are only profitable if you tender the right price, and win them
If our lot would tell the council that from now on all runs are now on the meter less 10% the council would have kittens
One company the Yellow peril cab tendered £18 per day, they had to travel from Peebles to Hawick for the pick up then to Edinburgh reverse in the afternoon an 80 miles twice a day

Just taking your advice then, eh Skippy?

No..not Cheaper than me..Correctlly priced they would Possibly be dearer than me.

They should have Priced their Tender per Pupil Passenger Mile Travelled allowing for empty travelling milage...nope..to easy!! instead they Priced it per Total milage Travelled....EG..Tendering a price of Between 65 to 75 pence instead of £1.30/£1.50, and when the Milage shown by the Council to have been say 10 pupil miles the true journey milage would be at least double this or even more, hence they were infact running at 32.5/38.5 pence per mile ...therfore the council Expected your price to be Approximately double this to allow for your Empty return Journey. As a Result Several Big Operators shot to the top of the League table and were offered all runs first simply because they were higher ranked as they only priced themselves at half of what they had thought they had done.

Doh!!!!!!

You mean they should have played by your rules rather than decide for themselves?

Sorry, but I've been in the trade too long, and I'm fed up of people thinking they can tell others how to run thier businesses.

THEY decide on the price, and THEY think everyone should follow suit, and if others don't then THEY get abusive and even threatening.

It's not as if they're sticking to the meter themselves.

I mean, Skippy telling others how to run their business and complaining about discounting???