Fleet Resourcing and the Bus and Coach Centre formed an alliance this year that saw operations expand and operators benefit from a larger selection of vehicles. Richard Sharman visited the Oxford site to find out more
Cast your mind back to the very start of March 2020. Things were pretty much normal in the coach and bus industry, and although coronavirus had been on the horizon since January, nobody knew what was to come.
Before March, Walters Bus and Coach Sales had been selling coaches and buses from its Oxford site, just off the A40 and near the M40, as a division of the family’s company Walters Coaches.
William Blowfield, owner of Bus and Coach Centre explained: “Although my father John and grandfather Peter had the Walters Coaches family business, I didn’t become fully involved with it until 2014 when I was asked to help set up the office computers. I did and then never left!
“I was the Operations Manager when we started working with Mark at Fleet Resourcing. As time went on we had built up an operational fleet of 40 vehicles, plus we had all the sales stock on-site.
“It became too much to do both sides of the business, so I took the opportunity to set up the Bus and Coach Centre and leave the family business, with their full support, at the beginning of March 2020. This is my business, and I work in unison with Mark.
“This now gives me time to do the vehicle collections and viewings without having to worry about the operational side. I moved out of the main office and into a Portakabin on-site and started renting the back half of the yard, meaning that we can easily store 65 to 80 vehicles at one time.
“Walters Coaches are still able to assist me with engineering work or allowing vehicles into or out of the yard 24 hours a day, so it works really well.
“People may think we are a dealership but we are not – the vehicles are collected and stored in the condition they arrive in, then sold as seen.”
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Fleet Resourcing
Mark Stephenson, who owns Fleet Resourcing, has a long history in the coach and bus industry, as he explained: “I have worked with coaches and buses all my life, having started as an apprentice at East Yorkshire Motor Services. By 1988 I was working for Thamesdown Transport in Swindon as the Engineering Director; when I left Thamesdown in 1997 to start on my own I already had an association with LHE Finance as they used to fund our new buses, so I contacted them and explained what I proposed to do. They suggested that we had a joint venture where they would supply the finance and I would buy and sell the vehicles.
“This joint venture was to become Ventura Bus and Coach Sales, which in the early days was known as LHE Ventura. As the business grew we decided to buy brand-new vehicles and then rent them out. At the time we were competing with Dawson Group and Mistral. Over time we became a thorn in the side of Dawson Group and they decided they wanted to buy LHE Ventura. The board of LHE agreed, although I didn’t want to sell as it was a successful company at only three years old.
“When Dawson Group took over they were nice enough to me, but I didn’t want to work for a large company. Previously I had a company called Fleet Resourcing which supplied battery guards to the industry, so I decided the resurrect that name.
“In the meantime, I was contacted by several banks in the asset management market. They asked me if I would carry on with what I was doing before, so under the Fleet Resourcing name I agreed and started using operators’ depots to store vehicles, splitting the commission with them on sale. I did this for some years until I met William at Walters.”
Working in unison
“Walters Bus & Coach were a customer of mine and I came to see them as a way of saying thank you for buying vehicles from me, which I do with many of my customers. Then I realised the potential of the huge yard in which they are based,” Mark said.
“Over the years I have worked with many different finance companies selling vehicles on. I currently work with 32 different finance companies and it got to a point where I needed to either rent a large yard or go into association with someone. The latter option seemed the better idea and Walters seemed the ideal choice.
“William had been working within the company business but decided to leave and do vehicle sales as a full-time job to take the partnership further. William does most of the work now, and in association with Fleet Resourcing, is the frontman.
“I liaise with the finance companies in securing the vehicles, we get the vehicles to the yard at Oxford and when sold we split the commission. Previously, finance companies would offer me large batches of London double-deckers that I had to turn down as I didn’t have enough room to store 24 double-deckers, but now we can approach the finance companies and say that we can take some, which makes them happy as the batch can then be shared out to different dealers meaning they get a better deal due to competition.
“All of our stock is owned by the finance companies until it is sold on; vehicles are advertised both through CBW and the Bus and Coach Centre website, and we have a database of over 4,000 operators.
“William is very good with the technology side of things – he built the website and is very good with social media. I, on the other hand, am very good with a biro!” joked Mark.
“As I am a qualified engineer I do a vehicle condition report on every vehicle, which is sent to the interested operator. It’s an honest ‘warts and all’ report so the operator already knows what they are coming to see in detail.
“I have built up a good reputation in the coach and bus industry, having been selling vehicles and industry associated products since the 1990s. Being well-established means we get a lot of operators coming back to us because they know we deal with honesty and integrity.”
Vehicle funders
Fleet Resourcing works with a range of finance companies, banks and brokers: “They primarily require desktop valuations for the bus and coach sector,” said Mark. “The funders operate in many different sectors – they may also fund yellow plant or computers for example. As they do not work in this sector full-time they do not know the difference between a Scania Irizar or a Scania Van Hool, to them it is badged as a Scania so must be the same thing.
This is where my industry experience comes in and I can explain the implications of the vehicle specification on the price, for example if it is Euro VI or PSVAR-compliant.
“There are some occasions whereby asset inspections are undertaken to ensure the asset is as described and in good order. Also, residual values can be provided for new assets at five or seven years and beyond, with updates on current market trends, along with technology issues and legislation that may affect values such as PSVAR.
“In addition I undertake end of lease return condition inspections to ensure assets are returned in the appropriate condition as noted in the terms and conditions provided, working with many of the coach and bus operators that I already know, from my time as Engineering Director at Thamesdown Transport.
“A significant number of the companies we work with will require assistance with collection, storage and onward remarketing of coaches and buses – either repossessions or end of lease units – and wherever possible we work with the companies and operators to resolve any issues.”
Communication is key
“With so many operators struggling at the moment the finance companies are reeling as they may have an operator with 10 non-PSVAR coaches that they are considering taking back control of,” continued Mark.
“They may ask me my opinion and I can then inform them that they are better to let the operator carry on with those 10 vehicles for the time being as they are non-PSVAR and will only end up being stored for a long period. This gives the finance companies the confidence that the operator may be able to carry on using the vehicle, for example where a contract may need duplicating for social distancing.
“In the main, most finance companies have taken a pragmatic approach to the Covid-19 situation, as there is no point in taking vehicles from an operator, storing them for six months and letting them deteriorate, meaning they are sold on for a third of their value.
“On the other side of the coin, some operators are concerned about contacting their finance company as they don’t want to admit they have a problem. I have received a phone call from a finance company in the past that has said they are having a problem with an operator who has missed payments and has not contacted them. I have advised that rather than taking the vehicle, that I go in there and do an asset inspection and talk to the operator. In this case, the operator was worried about talking to the finance company as they would want to take the vehicle; I advised them that the last thing a finance company wants to do is repossess a vehicle. He contacted them then and there and after a short time, the finance deal had been restructured over a longer period.
“Traditionally, without people like me, the finance companies would have sent a few letters and then collected the vehicle. This could lead to the company going out of business and drivers being out of work. So now it is a different ball game; while it is in our interest to collect vehicles, William and I agree that it’s the industry that is kind to us – we are not the kiss of death, we want to help operators as much as we can.”
Sold as seen
“We are a very lean operation here. We don’t have a big fancy showroom and the coaches and buses in the yard are the important things, although we may offer you a cup of tea and maybe a biscuit if you are really lucky!” laughed William.
“Our regular customers know exactly what they are getting at the Bus and Coach Centre; they come here for a day out, they may look at 10 to 20 vehicles and put many offers in.
“There are pros and cons to buying a vehicle when sold as seen, but operators generally know what they want and what to look out for with different vehicle types. We can get the vehicles over a pit for them to inspect and out for a test drive. There is no warranty with the vehicles and we will not sell a vehicle until an operator and been to see it in person, ensuring they are happy with it.
“In terms of selling vehicles on in this way, it is much better for the operator than the vehicles being sold on at auction when they may only get a third of their value and then end up having to pay the rest of the finance off.
Because of the way we work together, we can have the vehicle on the market within a few hours of arriving at the site due to social media.
“We try to achieve the highest possible price for the stock vehicles, which then helps the operator to clear possible debts still owed from those vehicles. If someone comes to see a vehicle and makes an offer, we then approach the finance company with it, and if it is over the reserve then the vehicle is sold. If the offer is below the reserve by a small margin then we can recommend they take it depending on current market conditions.”
Vehicle stock
Stock is always changing and being updated. When it comes to vehicles being collected, William explained: “If we are collecting a vehicle from an operator because the finance company is taking it back, I always call beforehand to inform them of the situation and 95% of operators say absolutely no problem. We often turn up and the vehicles have been fuelled and washed, waiting to be collected.”
Mark said: “When the Shearings fleet became available we initially took 49 vehicles, which included 2016 tri-axle Setras at £80,000, 2017 single-axles at £90,000 and low-mileage 2018 Mercedes-Benz Tourismos at £100,000.
This situation probably won’t come around again; operators with financial backing have been able to secure these vehicles and save upwards of £120,000 when compared to the normal retail price. Additionally, we are now carrying out PSVAR conversions in-house, the first vehicle being ready in time for our open days in a few weeks time”
At the time of going to press a large selection of different vehicle types were available, including Neoplan Tourliners ranging from 2015-19, Scania Higer Tourings, Scania Interlinks, Yutong TC9s, Volvo 9700s, VDL Futuras, further ex-Shearings Mercedes-Benz Tourismos and a choice of 13 PSVAR-compliant Caetano Levante-bodied Scanias straight out of service from the National Express network. Operators are invited to attend the Bus and Coach Centre open days on Saturday 31 October or Sunday 1 November. Please call Mark or William for further details.
