Speeches: Graham Smith, Commercial Director, Heyfordian Travel Ltd. - Oxford, United Kingdom

7th IRU East-West Road Transport Conference Budapest, 15-16 May 2003 Budapest Congress Centre (BCC), Alkotas u. 63-67 - 1123 Budapest, Hungary

Graham Smith,
Commercial Director, Heyfordian Travel Ltd. - Oxford, United Kingdom

Is it true that sustainability, from an environmental point of view, equals high service quality and thus profitability for coach operators? I believe that there is no contradiction between quality and sustainability. Sustainability equals profitability. It is a win-win situation for the operator and the environment.

Coaches are already an important part of the passenger transport chain; the EU passenger transport market is worth some 231 billion euro. But for some time received wisdom has been that the more the per capita income of a population rises and that population has access to other modes of transport such as cars and low cost air travel, coach travel declines. This may be true of many of the developed economies but not of the UK market. Although for the UK market the years 2001 and 2002 were not good for coach travel. 9/11 resulted in an immediate cut off of long haul tourists and these years also saw an expansion of low cost airlines. Yet the underlying statistics are still sound. The total market for coach travel within the UK is worth 2.5 billion euro. In the past decade it has grown 49% in real terms with vehicle kilometres increased by 14%. Little evidence of stagnation!

For the future, the enlargement of the EU will give travel within East and West Europe such a boost that coach travel has a huge opportunity to develop throughout the new Europe with material benefits to all. Other factors meanwhile have damaged confidence in air travel. This is likely to improve matters still further.

The wealth of history, architecture, and natural beauty that will attract tourists is almost limitless. Whilst weekend visits to capital cities are already a developed part of the marketplace (largely benefiting air travel), the hinterland of our new partner countries provide undiscovered new venues and their populations a new market place for coach travel. Meanwhile, each local economy benefits from coaches. Coach tourists tend to stay in local hotels, use local restaurants and local shops. The IRU, co-ordinated by its head of passenger transport, Jens Hügel, provided us with the study on 'The Role of the Coach in the Economy', which testifies to these facts. We must separately and together take advantage of these opportunities. This can only be done by attention to high quality service and awareness of environmental issues. We have already heard in this conference how the perceived harmful impact of road transport generally can be minimised. Attention to the three issues Innovation, Incentives and Infrastructure will produce high quality service. But how does this translate into coach transport? What are the environmental and quality issues? How can they be solved?

Coaches have a clear advantage over cars in terms of carbon emissions and global warming per passenger kilometre. Although a coach produces 2.8 times more carbon per 100 kilometres, using the average of 30 passengers per coach and 2 passengers per car the coach produces 5 times less carbon per passenger kilometre. The regulatory framework is also tightening up. Euro 1 to 3 engines have already imposed improvement this will be advanced by 2009 with Euro 4 and 5 engines which will lead to less fuel consumption and less emissions.

New coaches bring greater safety standards through technical solutions such as roll over cages and seat belts. Statistics show that in terms of fatalities buses and coaches are the safest form of land based passenger transport. But safety is not only down to technical solutions. We can and will improve driver standards through training. But the existing infrastructure has to be safe as well. Where necessary there must be clearly defined spaces for different modes of transport such as bikes, cars or coaches. Other road users must also be encouraged to play their part in road safety.

Comfort is also playing an important role in maintaining our share of the overall passenger transport market. The IRU Classification System, which can be compared to the star grading used in hotels, is seeing more high quality coaches operating on European roads. Coaches are becoming increasingly comfortable with features such as improved legroom, air-conditioning, toilets and sophisticated onboard entertainment systems becoming the norm.

But there are threats on the horizon. The European passenger transport market is not homogenous. Depending on the Member State, fiscal measures have a different impact on the competitive position of the different modes of transport. Especially the difference in VAT treatment, which can cause an enormous market distortion. Distortion of competition should be ended by equal treatment of VAT rates for different modes of transport.

City authorities also need to be convinced to guarantee access to city centres and provide adequate parking facilities for coaches. Our passengers cannot be treated as second-class citizens otherwise they will remain loyal to the automobile and create more congestion.

Coaches are an important part of the transport chain. We must protect their reputation and market position by constant attention to detail. Both quality of service and product are important in ensuring their long-term future as a viable mode of passenger transport. Quality equals sustainability, which can only lead to profitability.

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