Disposal of Arriva vehicles

[iMarkeh]

RE: Arriva St Helens Paint Shop & Repair Centre

(06/07/2020 22:33)SK15 GZG Wrote:  Yes I would if it meant selling them later meant I got a fair price for what they'd be worth - and land doesn't cost money if you already own it. As for other operational uses - what are these exactly? Arriva aren't exactly expanding services at a rapid rate and struggling to find depot space are they?

If there are no other operational uses, they could simply reduce their depot size and sell/lease the land (if they own the land) or if they don't own the land, by reducing the amount of land they have, they will pay less rent. It all depends on the ownership of the land and how much space could be freed up. Depots with 1 or 2 withdrawn buses it will make no difference. Chester however could be halved. AS you say as well 'Arriva aren't exactly expanding at a rapid rate' and with Arriva not really showing any signs of wanting to expand (the past few have just happened as a result of another company ceasing to trade and not Arriva expanding due to demand), I think the likelihood is that in time as PVRs keep slowly dropping, smaller sites may become favourable over large disused sites.
If you have the space, you don't think about it's use, if you took away the withdrawn buses though and saw how much space they take up across all garages, you then realise exactly how much excess space you have.

(06/07/2020 22:33)SK15 GZG Wrote:  Hardly. Barring the odd exception the vast majority of buses withdrawn by Arriva are still usable - but as they're at least fifteen years old upon withdrawal - other than a scrap dealer (for less than they're worth) which operators are going to buy them? Nobody. These days there's usually a large supply of much newer stock available on the second hand market which is going to last much longer

Given Arriva rarely sell to operators (directly or indirectly), withdrawn buses tend to go for scrap. If Arriva sold to other operators regularly, it would be a very different story.

(06/07/2020 22:33)SK15 GZG Wrote:  As for getting the same amount of money if you sold a bus when it was withdrawn three years ago or today - I have no idea where you've heard that but that is completely wrong. If a bus operator bought a bus (either a brand new one or one that was mid-life) tomorrow and then sold it on in three years' time they won't get anywhere near as much money as they paid for it in the first place. A bus which was withdrawn three years ago is now going to be worth less than it was back then. It's called depreciation and is a fact of life

I probably should have been specific here. I meant same scrap value. Sorry for the confusion. Of course I agree you would get more money selling to operators if the bus is newer.

(06/07/2020 22:33)SK15 GZG Wrote:  You'd be surprised how easy it is to get an engine going after it's been sat around for a while. Prior to me buying it my Leyland Atlantean (which I've since sold on) was sat around for years without moving - after fifteen minutes or so of looking around to check everything over it started first time. It wouldn't exactly take long for a scrap dealer - or whoever's buying it - to get an engine from a scrapped bus running again

Some buses could be brought back they won't be when they are withdrawn. If Arriva wanted to use the buses again, they would have done that instead of loaning the buses to cover the Halton routes.

(06/07/2020 22:33)SK15 GZG Wrote:  I think I'll trust Arriva's judgement on vehicle disposal rather than yours

Arriva can do what they want, as they always do. Doesn't mean we can't have an opinion on it and question why they do things so differently to the rest of the industry (and to an extent, do things differently to other Arriva groups). Stagecoach dump buses in Wigan for a few months and then then get sold on or scrapped. Not many buses stay around for long after they have been withdrawn (unless the withdrawn period is temporary and there are plans to bring the buses back into service)