RICHARDS BLOG

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Richards Blog 26.07.10 – Not another holiday weekend!

Well I should know better than to make those comments about hiring vehicles in as we very nearly needed to today! My coach had one of those mechanical surprises that have a habit of biting you at this time of year but we got it sorted and it is back on the road and we shall fight another day and at least it didn’t break down and it had the consideration to develop the problem at the end of a tour!

We are busy again today and I’am on our full day tour whilst Chris has quite a few people on our new bargain break from Dublin, so she gets a later start as she doesn’t meet the train until 12.16, at least we get to have a quick chat at The Cliffs!

If you are a regular reader of my ramblings you might recall that this weekend is my most hated weekend of the year – August Bank Holiday weekend, traffic is quite light today but depending on the weather tomorrow and Monday will probably bring out the day trippers and I’am looking like being in the Burren both days – happy days!

At least business is on the up at the moment and we had a great week last week (just as well as I have a huge repair bill to pay!)  But we do feel more confident and ready to fight for the business that it has taken 13 years to develop and we have a couple more tricks up our sleeve to win back some more business, that’s one of the great things about our little company, we can change quickly to meet changes in the market, also we have no huge commissions to pay so what you pay for your ticket comes to us, not a booking agent or anyone else for that matter – I think that seems fair – don’t you?

Back to our home life, I never thought I would say this but I had a great day on Wednesday painting out my “railway room” it sounds strange but a bit of painting was so therapeutic, it was nice to be away from driving and oil and filth in the garage, it also means my creative modeling talents can come into play soon!

03.08.10 – God, I love bank holidays!

I never got my blog finished on Saturday so here is the update from Tuesday now the dust have has settled a bit! I’am on my 4th Cliffs tour in a row and we were busy right over the weekend, I fact we were caught by surprise with some late bookings yesterday morning and ended up with a few overloads so Chris gave up her day off and helped – bless her! It was lovely having her company and we made it through the bank holiday unscathed for another year!

I must admit to not having my best day on Sunday I was doing my first of our new half day tours and again we were busy thank goodness but I did have a few pick ups and it was hard to get everyone picked up from hotels etc but everyone was ready and we were even a little ahead of time at The Cliffs, unfortunately that is where my misery began, I had a customer  who didn’t think he should have to pay the one euro facilities charge to Clare County Council and then proceeded to tell me that my tour was bad as I was late etc etc, now this was one person that we picked up at the University which meant we had to make special arrangements and I had to leave early to oblige them but despite this fact this young mans’ hatred for me knew no bounds and I must admit to feeling a bit insulted particularly as this is one aspect of the tour that we cannot change!

Normally when I have a customer complaint (they are few – honestly!) I try and resolve it by trying to see it from their point of view and doing my best to pacify them by chatting and (hopefully) making them feel that they matter but this fella hated me and I must admit to being defeated! Normally this would trouble me a bit but I have to confess to being furious when I got back home after dropping everyone off, I was cleaning out my coach for Mondays’ tour when I became aware that there was a lot of bits of rubber foam around the rear which I thought strange until I got to the back and saw where my friends group had sat, one of them had decided to attack the foam moulding around the rear crash rail with a knife and throw the bits around! Now we really do care about our coaches, this felt really personal and I was a bit sore, I have never had anything like this happen in 13 years of running tours, even when we have carried school kids in the past!

I vowed not to let this get to me but I have to admit that the thought of it is still a bit sore, as regular readers will know we do get quite attached to our coaches and they really become a home from home for us, over the years mine has developed into a bit of a shrine, I have my Chinese cat from Thailand, a miniature pair of Dutch clogs that was given to me by a lovely lady from Holland years ago, my Thai Budda and garland, my mascot TJ (a reclining Sylvester the cat) a lovely homemade silk butterfly given to me by a Chinese lady last year and last but not least my Guardian Angel given to me by Chris years ago. In this respect we are not just another bus company, everything about us is personal and Chris’ coach has similar trinkets of hers, so all in all damaging my coach is a bit like damaging my living room. I harbored thoughts of trying to contact where the group was staying but what good would it do? Instead I’am relying on Karma, so to the gentlemen in question, prepare for some bad luck!

Richards Blog 26.07.10 –  Phew – what a weekend!

Business has finally picked up and I’am delighted to say for the first time this season we had both coaches full on Saturdays’ Cliffs tour, we were however lucky enough to have some groups which is a big help! Needless to say all our competing companies were similarly busy and I have a new pastime on tour and that is “spot the tour company” now this might seem strange, after all surely you look at the name on the side of the coach but this would have got you nowhere on Saturday, coaches were hired in from all over Ireland, so much for having a brand! Now I cannot say we never hire, we are forced into it by mechanical problems sometimes but on the whole if you take a Barratt Tour you will travel on a Barratt vehicle, that way we are sure air con and pa system etc are all working and if its not then it is our fault! As usual I suppose we just care too much but I believe our lovely fully liveried and clean vehicles are our greatest asset! I have to say when we were working together on Saturday and Celtic Star and Celtic Pride were parked side by side it is a great feeling to see your name emblazoned on the side, it makes it all seem worthwhile somehow!

Of course there are a few companies offering tours now that don’t even own any vehicles, maybe they are right but I couldn’t imagine taking an Aer Lingus or Ryanair flight without seeing a green shamrock or a golden harp – maybe I’am just old fashioned – what do you think?

Competition is becoming even fiercer now and I hear that one of our competitors in Limerick are now trying to do deals to win business, well if they read this (and I would be so flattered that they actually take the trouble!) I can re assure them we have made our one and only price cut and they can be sure if a customers’ buying decision is based on price then they will win, however it is based on quality, presentation and reputation then it could just be an entirely different story! As I have often said we have worked too hard to develop our little company to sell it out and cut corners and quality as I feel certain that it is quality that will win in the end, I hope so as we are gambling everything on it!

I hope I don’t come across as bitter in my ramblings (or rantings!) in fact I hope you deduce that I’am passionate about what we do and that I’am certain of our quality (we are certainly not cocky – just confident) and I hope some of you can identify with the fight we have against larger more faceless companies, you words of encouragement really do fire us up almost as much as the pleasure of dealing with the lovely free spirited and discerning customers we are attracting, keep in touch and I shall now be using facebook more so if you haven’t already why not become a fan and we can chat online!

Richards Blog 17.07.10 – Home on the range with colliers and teemers!

Well business is still very poor, you know that I always tell how it is and I believe that our business is currently about 50% down on what was already a poor year last year, I don’t have any answers or observations to offer and so I’am not going to dwell on it and depress both me and yourself, dear reader!

With this bleak outlook for business at least things are improving at home, the best news of all is that Chris is fit and well after her operation the other week and thank you for your good wishes. Our home is also on the mend, for those of you that don’t know the tale of misery, we were burgled last year and this winter we had a burst pipe which destroyed 2 rooms and damaged much of the house but finally our trusty builder is nearly finished and as of last night we are back in the sitting room, its lovely to just flop in my armchair sometimes, we have also had a ruthless de-clutter and I’am a convert to the idea that a cluttered house makes a cluttered mind, also this means that I’am slowly mounting a take over bid for my “den” which is our spare room this contains one of my hobbies – my model railway which is to be a 148th scale model representing a fictitious part of South Shields in the North East of England near where we grew up. This masterpiece represents the legendary (to anoraks like me!) Harton electric railway which was years ahead of its time, it was actually electrified in 1904 and worked for over 80 years before coal production ceased at Westoe Colliery. The railways main function was to take both coal and stone waste (a by product of coal mining) to the River Tyne where it was loaded on ships. The coal ships were known as colliers and they would carry coal all round the UK coast but mainly toLondon and the South. The stone waste (mainly shale) was loaded onto a curious little ship known as the David Marley which took the stone about 5 miles out into the North Sea where it was dumped.

Now, as you might gather I absolutely love industrial history and one of the greatest joys of modeling for me is research, fortunately there is one good book to help me and my own jaded memory, also last winter I took the trouble to visit South Shields and spent a great afternoon uncovering clues to the whereabouts of parts of the railway and although the colliery itself is now completely covered by new housing there are still plenty of clues and relics particularly down by the River Tyne near the Tyne Ferry landing where the area known as The Low Staithes once stood, this is where the wagons of stone were teemed into ships. Teeming is the term given to the rapid unloading which believe it or not was done while the wagons were moving by gravity through the teeming shed and an unlucky fella called a teemer had to run alongside open and closing the trap doors under the railway wagons now, believe it or not, although this sounds Victorian it went on until 1987, I often wonder what health and safety would make of it now!

I’am lucky enough to remember watching this from the ferry landing when I visited with my father (the ten minute trip on the ferry to North Shields was a treat!) It was an example of the great industry and ingenuity of North East engineers how this all worked but it did, quietly and efficiently for years. Mention of the ferry reminds me that I couldn’t resist a trip last winter for old times sake and it was still great, in fact this winter I’am going to treat the old man to another trip as he gets on free with his OAP travel pass!

I hope you will forgive this weeks indulgence but it has done me good to go to a happier place away from the day to day fight that our business has become, if you have enjoyed this taste of Northern England Industrial history get back to me and I might give you another progress report!

harton

One of the locos I will be modelling taken mid 80 s

Richards Blog 10.07.10 – Anything but work!

This is my second attempt at this weeks blog, the first one was depressing even my fragile mind at the moment! We were in Dublin handing out our new brochure yesterday and I have to say it was our most depressing visit ever, we couldn’t believe the amount of competition on some of our products but I’am going to take a radical departure this week and forget about Barratt Tours altogether and talk about us (or at least I will try to!)

Instead I’am going to give you an insight into what makes us tick outside work on a more personal level, if I have one fault or virtue (you decide!) then it is that I have always worn my heart on my sleeve and probably reveal too much about what goes on behind the scenes of our little enterprise, we never have much to hide anyway! This week however has been one that has been really hard, Chris had to go into hospital on Wednesday for a minor operation but, of course we had a few passengers for our Cliffs tour and so I had to drop her at the hospital at 8.00 and then have a bite of breakfast before starting the tour. I hope I gave a good tour but have to admit to being deeply worried about Chris but my mood lifted when she rang me while we were at O’Connors pub to tell me she was alright, I suppose our job is like being on stage – the show must go on but trying to keep a happy exterior can be hard sometimes!

The happy exterior is being put to the test lately, we always get paranoid when business is not good but the market at the moment is really concerning us, we are even starting to doubt ourselves but fortunately our passengers often put our mind at ease and re assure us that what we are doing is good and that we are doing the right thing in not “selling out” for a short term gain in business, after all we didn’t risk our home 13 years ago to give up now but it does put a huge strain on us personally, we don’t need to talk to each other about how bad business is, we tend to have this ability to know what the other is thinking and unless we have come up with a brainwave there is no point in depressing ourselves further!

The other day I was out on tour and met one of our “successful” competitors tours out on the Burren now this company has had praise heaped on them by our former Minister for Tourism for being young and dynamic etc etc, I was having a photo stop and showing my valued customers a few sights at one of my favourite spots on The Burren, I had walked across with them and was enjoying the interaction but where was my colleague? Sitting on board the coach reading his paper of course, it seems that my old fashioned ways of helping people off the coach and mixing with them at photo stops is not the way to success and fame! This was not an isolated incident I look around me and see how badly people are treated but it seems service and manners are hardly a selling feature thee days!

I think I have mentioned this before in my blog but I’am currently re reading a fantastic book called “The Art of Possibility” by Ben Zandor. Now this is a book that I would often have glossed over as it tends to be thought of as being one of those “self help” kind of books but it really does help me, I wont bore you with too much about it but the real gist of it is that it encourages you to move out of “The measured world” into “the world of possibility” now this may sound idealistic and I suppose it is but how many of us exist solely in a measured world?

To apply this theory to our little business is easy, I spend a lot of time in the measured world thinking things like “we have 6 customers, but x tours has 46” or worse still “we had 46 for this tour on this day in 2006 and today we have 6” this is certainly in the measured world, if we spent as much energy considering how we could get 46 again then we would undoubtedly more efficient and cheerful but here is the problem. At the moment I’am only human version 1.0 and have never been programmed to remove the doubt and paranoia bugs that infest my operating system, I think I badly need a reboot up the a**e !

But this whole possibility thing has intrigued me and I have thought of a way that we could cast ourselves wide into “an ocean of possibility” and take away all measurement but from where I’am standing the water looks a little icy and I think I might see a shark or two! If I have wetted some of your appetites then drop me a line and I might tell you what I have in mind, it will be the bravest move we have ever made if we do it but I think we might just be able to pull it off if nothing else it will prove how much we are certain that what we do is right and honest, as always let me know what you think!

Richards Blog 21.06.10 – If we fight the good fight…….. ?

Well it has been a fairly uneventful week and I have to report that numbers are still at a very low level, we are surviving but only just! Those of you that have followed our progress over the years will know only too well that we are not people to sit back when business is poor instead we are always looking to re invent ourselves to appeal to a broader market and that’s what we hope we are doing now.

The business form Limerick has always been a bit unpredictable and over the years a sizeable chunk of our business came from Dublin in the form of day tours and short breaks using our rail connection but this business has literally been snatched from our grasp by the growing band of operators offering day tours to The Cliffs offering exclusively coach travel. When these were initially launched we watched with mild amusement at their antics flying around trying to fit 400 plus miles into a day tour and thought that it would never catch on but how wrong we were, there are now 3 operators fighting over this declining market and inevitably taking a chunk of our business. So what are we going to do? The obvious answer would be to launch our own tour but that is not our style apart from the fact that we have no desire to drive over 2000 miles a week we do not feel that the bus only option is a realistic one for our passengers, it might sound great on paper but from feedback we hear it is not always so good in reality!

The train really does score highly over coach travel as a way to cross Ireland, I have to be honest and say that the scenery of the Midlands is hardly spectacular whichever way you go, so why not just relax, walk around or have a drink and arrive refreshed to board a coach for the interesting bit with a driver that is fresh and happy without having already done 150 miles and thinking about the next 250!

We have decided to launch a new tour from Dublin leaving on Saturday and Sunday at the very civilized time of 10.00 to The Cliffs using the train as far as Limerick with a simplified tour that gives a full 2 hours at The Cliffs whilst still giving a taste of The Burren for a price that is little more than the bus all the way option, this includes a reserved seat on the train for only Eu49.00.

Or what I think is our best deal ever is we are offering that tour with a hotel in Limerick on Saturday night and our Blarney tour to return to Dublin on Sunday night for only Eu99.00 pps – how’s that for value!

Now you may be wondering how we can do this well I’am going to let you into a trade secret, we do not pay agents commission on any Dublin packages – many other companies are now giving over half their fare to third parties, we don’t think this makes long term sense, we would rather pass on the savings and receive our bookings online direct. Now this might sound a bit fanciful after all doesn’t everyone book tours at the tourist office or their hostel or hotel? We don’t think so, I remember a certain well known Irish airline effectively cutting out travel agents and going to all online bookings – was this a crazy decision? I don’t think so and neither do Ryanair, they seem to be doing rather well out of it!

Our only snag to all of this is spreading the word, we are just organizing a new brochure and a flyer promoting our summer specials and we have another project bubbling along rather nicely which will involve a new website, also we have new nicetours.biz packages about to be launched – busy times but hopefully we are turning the corner and might show our competitors that this little company could just give the Goliaths a hit where it hurts but we can only do this with your help – give us a try, we are sure you wont regret it!  

Personally the lack of business does take its toll, by this time of year we are normally settled into the frame of mind of working hard and devoting all our time to running tours and looking after our coaches but at the moment we are running tours and thinking of ways to create more business like web changes, designing brochures and general marketing which honestly does take its toll, all we talk about is business, be it bemoaning the lack of it or discussing ways to create it, our Thursday night out is the only “us” time left and that goes by way too quickly!

So can we win if we fight the good fight? We think so but we can only do it with passengers so check out our new offers and give us a try, you will be more welcome than ever!!

Richards Blog 21.06.10 – I try to take life one day at a time ………!

………but lately several have come up on me at once! I love that quote not sure where I stole it but it would neatly sum up my life at the moment!

I think I left you last time with me anticipating our weekly Thursday night out well guess what? It never happened! I was on our Galway tour and my coach developed an electrical problem which amongst other things meant the air con died, now it was really hot on Thursday and so I had a problem, a good friend of ours came to our aid (thanks again Paul!) and leant us a coach to get our passengers back to Limerick, I then had to take that back after the tour and have a rather warm journey back in mine, so no night out but at least our passengers weren’t hot and bothered!

My faithful coach was cured easily on Friday by our electrical genius and thankfully wasn’t too expensive for once! So, fast forward to Saturday and our Cliff tour.

We had quite a large group and I had my coach again, we met the train and I headed off towards Ennis where I had my last passengers to pick up. Before crossing The Shannon I started to meet slow traffic and this continued to crawl for about 3 miles, it turned out we were stuck behind a cycle race which we eventually past on the dual carriageway but I was delayed at least 25 min, I headed to Ennis and got our last passengers but was dreading getting into Clare as we had the Tour de Burren cycle race to contend with next (yet another cycle race!)

Things went ok and there was no delay until Ballyvaughan when we came on the start although most of the race was actually returning so we headed around Black Head and I was coping ok with the oncoming traffic (the road is very narrow!) but after Black Head I met another coach in a nearly impossible point to pass, fortunately someone helped reverse traffic and get us to a point where we passed with about an inch to spare and another 15 min lost! Anyway we headed on and came to the road to Doolin which had been closed for the race so another 10 min diversion!

After a slightly shortened lunch I arrived at the cliffs about 3.40 but I really wanted to give the group our normal 90 min but that would leave us a tough job to make the train back to Dublin at 6.55 so Chris decided to meet me just outside Ennis  and take our train customers straight to Limerick while I did the few drop offs we had – it worked a treat but it was quite a day!

I hope this shows that we do “go the extra mile” to make sure everyone gets the best experience possible and I think all things considered my group on Saturday felt a little sorry for me but still had a great day, I cannot honestly say that I enjoyed it much though – I prefer a peaceful life!

I think after all that I might tell you a bit more about Thailand next week – I badly need a diversion from work!

Richards Blog 12.06.10 – We should have a tour on Friday!

Well it has been another mixed week in fact we didn’t run our Galway tour on Thursday as we had no passengers which meant I had an extra “day off!” I actually spent the day helping one of our friends in the trade as they were having one of those behind the scenes crisis’s that we are all too familiar with, they had a very expensive coach broken down on their busiest day and were in dire need of a trusty driver to look after the first day of a French tour so cometh the hour, cometh me! I spent a nice easy day driving a full size coach and even had the luxury of a guide – it made a nice change actually but felt strange not talking so much!

We had a nice meal out and an early night on Thursday because our main day off was looking rather hectic! Chris had been on tour with her coach on Thursday and managed to have a puncture (fortunately on the way back!) so I had nice big wheel to change! Also our small coach needed 2 new tyres so that was taken into town to our trusty tyre shop. Chris had also mentioned that her air con was not as cool as it should be so I took a look and found 2 fans not working and they were ordered to be changed next week! So all in all a busy day, and the cost of all this? – a cool Eu600.00 which we could well do without at the moment but we never skimp on maintenance – those 3 coaches cost too much for that!

Another cost of all that was that I managed to pull a muscle in my back and spent most of yesterday in agony (Chris covered my tour!) I’am inBlarney today and it feels much better, just as well as I’am heading to The Cliffs tomorrow with a largish group! Now I hope you can see why running tours every day is just not an option for safety or our sanity!

We are just putting the finishing touches to our new Limerick brochure and we think it is looking great the new brochure will also bring in some slight changes to our tours but I’am not going to divulge that just yet, after all it takes our competitors a few weeks to copy everything we do so we might as well surprise everyone this time!

Personally we are ok at the moment although I would be lying if I said that our current level of business isn’t a concern, indeed our biggest stress at the moment is because we are each working on projects to increase business well into the night and it does take its toll but if that’s what we need to do to stay in the business we love then so be it, we can always dream of holidays next January!

It sounds strange talking about the business as being the job we love but that really is the way we see it, some of our tripadvisor reviews mention our enthusiasm and passion for the business but the truth is we have worked very hard to get where we are now and we will fight tooth and nail to keep our little business, it has been really touching how people identify with our stuggle as more and more big brands try to dominate the world there does seem to be a genuine enthusiasm for smaller more “organic” businesses and long may it continue!

We are hoping to get a Thursday night off although we do have a transfer on Friday – a bit of live music could be just what we need to keep our spirits up, I will report next week!

Richards Blog 07.06.10 – We are number one in Limerick!

We have just received a huge boost to moral, we have been inviting our lovely customers to take a few minutes to review us on Tripadvisor over the last few weeks and we now have 22 good or excellent reviews which has put us up to number 1 attraction in Limerick, it has been truly touching to read some comments as we are a little down at the moment with one competitor seeming determined to undermine our 12 years hard work in Limerick. One comment that really struck me was ”like traveling with friends”  when I cast my mind back to 1998 and our first Burren tour that is exactly what we were hoping Barratt Tours would become and indeed it is how we hope we can remain – all we need is customers!

Mention of our competitor has got me thinking again and I would just like to take this opportunity to thank them very much for waking us up to all the possibilities that exist, I suppose we were a little too comfortable dealing with our own little business relying primarily on customers from Limerick and I suppose it has made us realise that there is such a lot of untapped business in other cities and markets and that we really need to diversify. We have been looking at other markets which we are not really strong in and while it seemed from the outside that some of them were a “closed shop” on investigation it seems people really are hungry for change and competition and guess what? Your favourite tour company is poised to move into these other markets without cutting quality, after all nothing is forever and nobody has a right to business so “vive la difference!”  We are going to become not only Irelands smallest but also its most talked about tour operator with an offer that is superb value and great quality so watch this space – exciting times ahead!

I have been seeking solace through all this upheaval in one of my greatest loves – music, as regulars will know I have a love for meaningful yet slightly melancholic music, my favourites being Elbow and Doves but lately another band has impressed, they are called Delphic and supported Doves on tour but I’am ashamed to say that I missed them in Manchester last year (another love of mine – beer delayed our arrival at the venue!) To make amends I bought their album Acolyte the other week and I love it, is very wordy and catchy but with some great dance and club influences – check out “This Momentary” it is my theme tune for life at the moment!

 

You can now see my past blogs at my very own page at blogger.com - click here

 



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