Three decades of Roadmark

Now celebrating its 30th anniversary, West Sussex-based Roadmark Travel has remained small, operating just two coaches. The priority has always been to stay as close as possible to customers as David Coster, Mark Anderson and David Council explain to Andy Izatt It’s 30 years since Mark Anderson founded what today is Roadmark Travel of Storrington in West Sussex. “I think the key to our success has probably been that our customers trust us to give good service and provide a quality product whether it be a holiday or day trip,” said Mark. “Stability is important. They know we’re going to be here and that they’ll have a good time because we’ll look after them. In a sense, we’ve grown old together. [wlm_nonmember][…]

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“I’d been a primary school teacher, but by 1987 was ready for a career change,” Mark recalled about how he came to found the business. “I enjoyed teaching, but had concluded I didn’t want to do it for the rest of my life so went to the Job Centre in Worthing to see what was available. One of the cards said ‘bus drivers wanted.’ I’d always been interested in buses and coaches so thought I’d give it a go.

“It was Southdown that was looking for staff. There was a brief interview. I didn’t have a PSV licence as it was then, but they said I’d be trained which I was and I was based at a little garage at Storrington that was an outstation for Worthing.

“Three buses were based at Storrington at the time – Bristol VRTs and Leyland Nationals – although the latter were too long to fit inside the garage. One bus would be parked on the forecourt and refuelling took place at Worthing.

“I worked for Southdown for around two years, but in 1989 decided to go my own way, founding Roadmark Educational Travel with a Duple Dominant-bodied AEC Reliance that I bought for £5,000 from another local operator, Mick Stoodley of Ambassador Travel. My plan was to take children on educational visits so I wrote to all the primary and secondary schools in the area to let them know I’d set up in business and to ask whether they’d be interested in hiring my coach.

“Bookings started to come in and after about a year I started doing excursions as well picking up in Worthing, Storrington and Horsham. It was nothing too ambitious to begin with – to places like Heaven Farm near Uckfield, which we still go to, Eastbourne and Hastings – but the number of trips just grew.

“Our first holiday was to the Isle of Wight in 1991 and I remember arriving at the hotel in the AEC and the boot handle falling off when I tried opening it. I told my passengers to have a cup of tea in the hotel and I was there for around half an hour with screwdrivers, but we got the luggage out eventually.

“I was doing more and more excursions and holidays and by 1993 started thinking I needed some help. My Dad, Les had sold his own business and moved down to Sussex so got involved as well. A second vehicle was required so I bought a Wadham Stringer Vanguard-bodied Ford. It was an automatic and that’s what Dad passed his test in so he was only ever able to drive automatics.

“Although we never had a permanent school contract of our own, West Sussex County Council would phone asking us to cover jobs and we ended up with a semi permanent run to a school in Petworth for a few years. We used to help out other operators as well like Ron’s of Ashington and Billingshurst Coaches. My Dad’s conservatory at his home in Washington became my office.”

New partnership

“By this time we’d built up a regular clientele and I was really enjoying what I was doing,” explained Mark. “It was the friendliness of the passengers and I enjoyed the driving. It was great to go to different places and be paid for it – to have cream teas and to go on holiday so often – but it was clear that we were going to need more help. That’s when I met David Coster.”

“I’d had my own O-Licence and operated vehicles, the first being a Plaxton-bodied AEC Reliance I bought from Hugo Miller of Arun Coaches, Horsham,” said David. “I remember having to carry a five gallon drum of water behind the front passenger seat because the coach was always overheating.

“While I’d driven for Southdown in the 1970s, I later drove trucks for Datsun, now Nissan and then became a self employed driver trainer for both trucks and buses and coaches. By the time I met Mark, I was also driving for several local operators. We first met in Bournemouth where we’d both taken a group to the flower show. I was driving for Beta Travel of Worthing that day and we each had our respective mothers onboard. We seemed to get on well and within a few weeks, I received a letter from him asking whether I would be interested in discussing the future.

“In 1995 we became business partners, forming a new company, Roadmark Travel with Mark as the majority shareholder. He’d bought a Volvo, a B10M Plaxton Paramount from Bob Vale by that stage, but the money I put into the business enabled us to buy a second vehicle which was a Leyland Royal Tiger Doyen from the same dealer. It was really our first luxury coach with double-glazing and a toilet – peace of mind for passengers as well as the driver – but it was later replaced with another Volvo B10M Plaxton Paramount.”

“By 1997 we were doing two or three excursions a week as well as 14 holidays,” said Mark. “I think we started going abroad with day trips to Bruges when David came onboard, but our first continental holiday was to the Tirol in Austria. We double manned it and both remember it well because the coach broke down.”

Said David: “We found a Volvo truck dealership that was owned by racing driver Jochen Berger’s family, but we didn’t expect that it would be able to do much. It was the alternator that was the problem, but amazingly there was a replacement in stock and it was fitted. What a stroke of luck.

“By the end of the decade we had become computerised and had set up a tiny office in Storrington that we rented from a barber. I don’t think either of us were particularly money orientated. We wanted to make a living, but also enjoy what we were doing. We’re both caring people, Mark in particular, and we looked after our passengers really well. As often as not after an excursion, we would drop them as close as we could to their homes. That was appreciated and it nurtured loyalty.

“Going out in those days was an adventure and there was always a happy atmosphere on the coach. While nowadays people expect you to know were you’re going and are very quick to complain, it wasn’t that way then. Often we would go away on tour and not know exactly the route. We had maps and an atlas, but we would take wrong turnings and it was all part of the fun. We were exploring Europe and enjoying it. We took the decision not to grow the business anymore although it was quite difficult to keep to that at times.”

Buying new

“When we bought our first new coach we decided to go down to one vehicle,” said Mark. “We bought a Berkhof Axial-bodied Dennis Javelin from AVE Berkhof in 1999 and it was our pride and joy for about five minutes!”

“We’d been to Dennis at Guildford to see the chassis and went to the Berkhof factory,” said David. “It looked like the coach would be good, but sadly it didn’t prove to be. The position of the Cummins engine meant access was atrocious and it overheated. We found that out going up the Brenner Pass.

“When we got to Lake Garda the receptionist at the hotel we were staying at luckily spoke good English and arranged for a mechanic to come out. The first thing he said was where’s the engine? What’s a Dennis? In the end, we solved the problem thanks to Ron at Ron’s of Ashington. He ran Javelins and told us what we needed to do – disconnect an electric plug that was positioned too close to the engine and that solved the problem.”

“We had another bad experience when the Javelin broke down in Dorking while taking a party up to London to catch the Orient Express,” said Mark. “It was fortunately near the railway station and I bought everyone a ticket so they could catch a train to Victoria where all they needed to do was walk across to another platform.

“The Javelin lasted around three years,” said David. “That’s when we bought the first of two new Neoplan Euroliners. One was fully automatic while the other had an AS-Tronic automated gearbox and they had different engines as well. There was an MAN in one, Mercedes-Benz in the other.

“The passenger friendliness of a vehicle is very important to us. The position of the entrance steps was good in the Euroliner and grab handles were well positioned, but most important was visibility out of the windows. It never ceases to amaze me how, even today, there are coach designs where window pillars and curtains obscure the view out. The Neoplans were nice to drive and to ride in and we ran the two together for a while.

“It was because of its passenger friendliness that we bought our first Mercedes-Benz Tourismo in 2008 and, apart from a DAF-powered Irizar i6 that we ran with a Tourismo for around three years, have stayed with Mercedes-Benz ever since. We have two at the moment.

“What’s good about the Tourismo is that it does what it says on the tin. Yes, it’s a box on wheels, but visibility is good for passengers, as is accessibility. They like travelling in it and the badge does have a pull as well.

“Our standard coach specification is 48 seats with a toilet. The Irizar had the ‘wow’ factor and what sold it to us was that it was slightly longer, giving generous legroom, but for at least one lady it was actually too much. She couldn’t reach the footrests!”
Said Transport and Excursions Manager David Council: “It was a nice vehicle, but we’d had Tourismos for many years by then and the passengers had got used to them.”

“Our vehicles are maintained for us by Leech Auto Services of Coolham and are on eight-weekly inspections.” added David Coster. “It does a very good job and I think our record for MOTs is 100%.”

Small team

Mark Anderson relinquished his share in Roadmark Travel in 2008 when David Coster bought him out. “I left for about a year,” said Mark. “While we were not operating more coaches, the business had grown and it was all getting to be a bit of a worry. I’d enjoyed teaching so I thought I’d go and do a Return to Teaching course and perhaps go back to it, but in the end, nothing came of it in terms of a job. David asked me to come back as Tours Manager so that’s what I did.”

“It had been a struggle without Mark,” observed David. “I didn’t have the experience he had in putting together brochures. I’d done a couple, but was very relieved when he came back.”

Now based at Stockbury House in Church Street, Storrington, Roadmark Travel has a small office team of which the full-time members are the two Davids, Mark and Nigel Burgess who for many customers is their first point of contact. As well as manning reception with an endless capacity to listen, and handling bookings, Nigel looks after the book keeping too. There are two part-time ladies as well who cover a wide range of jobs between them.

“We employ around 10 drivers all of whom are part-time,” said David Coster. “Mark and I still do a bit of driving as does David Council and there are seven others. Everything in our brochures is covered by us using our two coaches. Normally the only time we’ll hire in is if there’s a clash with a private hire booking, but that probably doesn’t happen more than a couple of times a year.

“My view is that drivers must have really good people skills as well as being good behind the wheel. They need to be true to themselves, but be able to talk to customers regardless of background. They must also be able to sort out problems at hotels or venues – situations where they’re the ones passengers are looking to for help. We’ve been very lucky with the drivers we’ve employed and have never had someone we didn’t feel was right for us.”

“Patience is important as well,” said David Council. “Most of our passengers are 70 plus so they’re going to be a bit slower, but often it’s just about listening to them. They’re going for the day out, not necessarily the destination. They may not have seen anyone else all week so they want to share their problems.”

Said David Coster: “The issue we have now is that two or three of us are getting on a bit, myself included. There are plenty of bus drivers out there, but it’s not always the case that they can move from buses to coaches.

“We pay 50% of the cost of the Driver CPC and aim to do seven hours annually, usually in January or February, although we’re in credit at the moment so we don’t actually have to do a day this year.”

“We use Alec Horner’s Minimise Your Risk although it’s one of our drivers, Paul Green who has run some of the courses as well,” said David Council. “We ask the drivers what they want to learn about and also what’s nice with us all driving part-time, is that it brings everyone together under one roof, which only rarely happens.

“We’ve been members of the Coach Tourism Council (now the Coach Tourism Association) since the late 1990s,” said Mark. “We’re members of the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) as well and since August have been part of its Bonded Coach Holidays scheme. They’re recognised trade bodies and belonging to them helps give little companies like ours respectability.”

“For day-to-day advice, the CPT is always there,” said David Council. “Quite apart from what’s available through the website, there’s someone at the end of a phone who will have answers or knows someone who does. Should there be a real emergency, there’s also the crisis helpline.”

Standing apart

“We have always strived to be that little bit better than bigger tour companies in terms of customer care, quality of hotels and the content of our tours,” said David Coster. “We have always had all inclusive pricing rather than a low lead in price and then people having to pay for extras. Our holidays are door-to-door using taxis and there are normally no more than two pick up points with the coach.”

“I book some of our holidays direct with hotels in the UK, but if it’s a foreign holiday I usually use a wholesaler,” said Mark. “I find Norman Allen Group Travel and Albatross particularly good both in terms of products and backup. They sort out problems, which can save me a lot of time and trouble. I couldn’t organise the volume of trips we do without that kind of support.”

“With such a loyal customer base, the challenge we continue to face is keeping what we offer fresh,” said David Coster. “It’s less of an issue with holidays because there are always new places to go, but it’s becoming harder with excursions. There’s only so far we can go in a day.”
“The concessionary bus pass has affected the level of interest in excursion destinations that can be reached easily by bus like Portsmouth or Brighton,” noted Mark. “But there are still places that sell well. The Mill at Sonning is one, The New Forest another. Include a cream tea or a lunch and people will go.

Said David Coster: “For many years we have organised a day excursion where all the proceeds go to Macmillan Cancer Support. We take people for a lunch at the Mercure White Hart Hotel in Salisbury which gives us a very good deal. A raffle is held and passengers bring prizes. Last year we took close to 100 people using both coaches and raised about £2,000 for the charity.

“We ran two Christmas tours in 2018 – one to Lake Garda, the other to Torquay. It’s the first time we’ve had two Christmas departures and the first time we’ve gone abroad. All the passengers knew they were going to receive a gift, but what it was remained a surprise. Often it’s a surprise to us as well as it’s chosen by my wife Kate who is now semiretired from the business. We often don’t know what she’s going to get.”

“Something new we’ve started is working with Cruise & Maritime Voyages. Our first is in June on the Marco Polo and is pretty much sold out. Another to Amsterdam and Hamburg for the Christmas markets in December has also already attracted bookings. Cruising is probably one of our biggest competitors, so if you can’t beat them, join them. I think what we’re offering will be popular.

“So many of our customers tell us they’ve just come back off a cruise. Luckily we’re in an area where there’s a fair bit of wealth and they can have their cruises as well as coach holidays. We’ve never really been able to identify whether they spend less with us now because they’re cruising, but I would think there’s a good chance that it’s a slightly smaller spend in some cases. I can see the attraction of cruises and Kate and I have done a few ourselves.

“We’re always prepared to try something different. We operated a Southdown Northern Counties-bodied Leyland PD3/4 ‘Queen Mary’ open-topper for a time and Mark still owns the bus, which is used for the occasional staff outing. When it was operated on our O-Licence it used to go to the Epsom Derby each year.

“We hired a similar vehicle from Southcoast Motor Services (SMS) based near Chichester so we could run a trip to the Southdown 100 event at Southsea in 2015 and for several years now, have hired one of its two Harrington-bodied Leyland Leopards with 28 armchair seats for an annual tour organised by Mark. This year it’s going to Norfolk.”

“Despite the coach having high entrance steps, no air-conditioning or an onboard loo, that tour sells out within two or three days,” said David Council. “People from SMS book four seats because they love going themselves. It’s normally one of our drivers, Paul McKinney who drives and he’s very good at it. So all the luggage isn’t placed in the boot, it’s loaded into a van which Paul’s wife drives and she follows behind him. We can’t send a coach of that age too far. Norfolk is about the limit.”

For some years now Roadmark has had a programme of escorted tours thanks to Tony Pragnell who’s a specialist in that area. “I was lucky enough to meet Tony for the first time on a ‘fam’ trip to New Zealand,” said David Coster. “He ran his own Northampton-based tours hiring in coaches and agreed to put together a bespoke European tour for us that he would escort. He delights in finding places and using hotels that coach operators don’t go to and passengers absolutely loved him. Whatever he put on, we would have a full coach.

“I also persuaded Tony to let us provide the coach to do the tours he organised for his own groups. Even though he was in Northampton, we would go up there and take his groups to destinations all over the UK and Europe. It worked exceedingly well.
“Tony is winding down now, but he only has to mention that he’s thinking about another tour to passengers on one of his trips and they’ll be on the phone making a booking.”

Keeping it personal

“Keeping the business small has enabled us to maintain that personal relationship with our customers,” said David Coster. “I think that can go when you start to get bigger. It’s underlined by customers like Betty Watson who gave us a lovely cake when she found out we were celebrating our 30th anniversary.

“We produce one holiday brochure and two day excursions brochures annually and primarily contact with us is by phone. We have a passenger booking system that we bought from Distinctive Systems back in 1999 but, as yet, we can’t accept bookings online, but I’m not convinced at the moment that there would be a significant increase in bookings if we did. People still like to talk to a person.

“We do have customers who come in and book multiple trips. There was a couple who booked nine holidays in one go soon after our 2019 brochure came out. That was worth £10,000, but that is quite unusual.”

“It’s a reflection of the good name this company has built up over the years,” said David Council. “Mark never wanted to cancel a trip when he first started and that has paid dividends over the years. We have people come in who book multiple excursions at a time as well as holidays.”
“I would say that around 95% of our work is generated through our brochures,” said David Coster. “The other 5% comes from private hire and we have several loyal local customers for that, but they have to book early. Once our brochure is out the coaches are committed and there’s then very little flexibility. However, the downside from our own generated work, of course, is that it’s quite labour intensive.

“Getting potential new customers is not a problem. There’s a generation coming through that don’t want to drive anymore and we have enquiries every week from people who have heard about us and want to be added to our mailing list. The challenge is then converting that interest into bookings.

“For both day trips and holidays, people are leaving it later to book, but even so, within weeks of our latest brochures coming out, around half of all seats had been sold. Depending on what happens with Brexit, we’re reasonably confident about the future. We just carry on doing what we do and try and be innovative.

“If I knew then what I know now I would still have got involved with Roadmark. It has been a very enjoyable career and I’ve seen a lot of places I would never otherwise have seen.”

“I would agree with that,” said Mark. “It’s the people that make the job, be they passengers or colleagues. I would definitely do the same again. We hope to be here for a few more years.”

 

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