DECISIONS DECISIONS

摘要

Every month, our Fleet News pages record the cycles of operators' purchases and disposals of vehicles, but how often do we pause to consider not just what has arrived and departed but why those businesses have made their choices? At the big PLCs, central processes and policies often dictate what makes and models their subsidiaries may buy, increasingly in multi-year deals - over five years at National Express, three at Metroline - with local management selecting the standard models best suited - or least unsuited - to a particular route. It is all quite different at Trent Barton and its fellow subsidiaries of Wellglade, one of the last surviving management buyouts from the 1980s privatisation of the National Bus Company and a business driven by market research and customer feedback.