Honestly, I think it is best to support your local businesses, but not at the cost of customer…read moreservice. When I was a student in 2004, ACW provided the coaches for all of our trips. I remember that things went smoothly and Dave Greaves, one of the drivers, was always so personable and very accommodating. Fast forward five years when I took over planning the trips and there was a new company in use. ACW was still used for trips from Academic Services, but not for the optional college trips. I don't know what happened, but I would rather form an opinion of a company based on what my own experience. Five years later, Dave is still the most personable and accommodating driver.
For the British Studies Field Trips, they are usually late and sometimes it involved the double decker breaking down. We do these same trips every semester and we are on a tight schedule to get the students through each of their tours. There is a driver I find unprofessional and unpleasant and it is because he really hates his job and proceeds to show us just how much. On a day trip to Coventry and Stratford, we were in Coventry just getting ready to depart and he had just pulled away to a red light. A couple of students came running up to the coach, the professor asked him to open the door and they got into a yelling match. He finally opened the door, but then started yelling at the students. He then got lost in Coventry and the professor politely tried to help, but he ignored her and we wasted an hour circling Coventry. Another time, he showed up to take my group to Gatwick, the only reason I used ACW was the double decker, so I wouldn't have to book two coaches from my usual coach company (before they took ownership of a 59-seater) and he was already muttering profanities as students were bringing their suitcases out to put on the coach. He then took the wrong turn headed to Heathrow instead of Gatwick, then he took a wrong turn taking us to the wrong terminal at Gatwick. On another occasion he left his phone on speaker so he could communicate with another driver about where they were going to set us down in London, but after they discussed that, he proceeded to start talking to him about personal matters and at one point said something about a naughty weekend to which the front half of the coach heard. Really unprofessional.
The office is a bit unorganized as sometimes I can call and the person on the phone will take the booking, but when I call back a few days later because I have not received any confirmation, the person who takes the private hire bookings says that she hasn't received it. With my usual company, I always send an itinerary a week ahead of the trip by email and the company confirms it for me or lets me know if there is a problem. ACW doesn't correspond with email so I prepare a fax with the information/itinerary and send it off. No confirmation of receipt and they do not usually provide me with the coach mobile or driver information. They seem to provide it for the ladies that organize the Academic trips, but I guess it may be a sore spot that I do not use them for the other trips. The last time I booked was for a quick run to the train station from the Manor. I talked with one person on the phone, called back again and it had not been booked. When I did talk to them again I said that the coach would depart at 12:40 p.m., but that it would need to be at the Manor by 11:30 a.m. so our staff could load luggage. The coach did not show up at 11:30 a.m. It didn't show up at 12 p.m. When I called the company, because I didn't have the coach mobile number, they sounded really indifferent about the whole thing and said, "Well, I will see what I can do." The coach showed up at about 12:30 p.m. but since I wasn't sure what "Well, I will see what I can do" meant, our staff used our mini bus shuttles to drive students in groups to the train station with their luggage. The coach took about 7-8 people, the students that were waiting for the shuttle to come back and take them... there were 55 on the trip.
That being said, I offered them the chance to give me updated quotes for each of the trips and every trip except the day trips was more expensive than the other company. Sometimes it was just a few quid in other cases it was a couple hundred. The fleet is smaller compared to the fleet of my usual company, but it is still sizable. If you are needing the flexibility of different size coaches, you are limited to mini-buses, 49-seaters, and the double decker (I think it seats 68... but breakdowns are a common occurrence with it). While they did go into administration, they do have a new owner and have split the coach business from the car dealership. They offer lots of tours and everyone keeps saying they are really popular and make lots of money, but I guess I don't understand it. I do hope that with the new owner things shape up because at one time they were a really good coach company.
