Last week I had a lot of activity booking coaches for 2014. Not specifically for Ski Gower www.skigower.co.uk but more for our sister products i.e. our summer music tours www.gowertours.com and our sports tours www.sports-tours.org.uk . However, what transpired will possibly affect our school ski trip coach bookings for 2015.
The consensus is that fewer companise are operating into Europe and that the stock of vehicles is getting older. Apparently, a major operator in the U.K. schools market for the summer of 2013 had to hire in 30 coaches from Ireland to cover work out of the U.K. such is the shortage.
There are a number of reasons, which include, lack of drivers willing to do the work as they can get paid far more for less hassle driving lorries. Also companies have more and more issues to deal with, with regard to EU regulation including the new Euro 6 standard, which is all to do with emissions but has rocketed the cost of vehicles to purchase. The fear of a European breakdown and the costs invloved is another factor and one operator told me last week that he can earn more per day by just doing domestic work.
So far, this has not affected Ski Gower so I hope that we can continue to find quality coaches and quality coach companies who are willing and happy to do our work for us.
Peter Cook
General Manager
Monday 30th September 2013