Compliance costs for the bus industry: The impacts of the Disability Discrimination Act, 1995, on local bus services
Introduction
The 1995 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) enables regulations concerning access to public service vehicles, taxis and rail vehicles to be made by the Secretary of State for Transport. It is a requirement of the Government that no regulatory proposal affecting business should be countenanced without a Compliance Cost Assessment (CCA) being made. Such an assessment is intended to show the likely cost implications to business of complying with the regulations and to ensure that any such regulations do not impose unnecessary burdens on business.
This paper is concerned with the CCA for the bus industry, much of that assessment having now been completed. A similar study is in progress for the taxi industry and is due to be finalized early in 1998.
The principal source of information for the CCA was a series of interviews with vehicle manufacturers and body builders, and with 22 operating companies. The latter included the three major groups (Stagecoach, FirstBus, Cowie), former municipal undertakings and independents. The choice of operators was made to be representative of different sizes of operator and operating areas and was done with the assistance of the Confederation of Passenger Transport UK. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders undertook a similar role for the vehicle manufacturers.
Section snippets
Present vehicle stock
The work on the CCA for the bus industry started in late 1996 at which time draft regulations being prepared under the DDA primarily concerned buses over 7.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight (GVW). Buses below this GVW were expected to have to meet design requirements needed to assist ambulant disabled and encumbered passengers, but full access for wheelchair users was only to apply to the larger vehicles. This initial decision is being reconsidered and the full access regulations may now apply to
Compliance cost calculations
These costs can be divided into two broad categories: capital and operating. There is already some experience in the industry of buying and operating low-floor buses that comply with the proposed regulations. The data used in estimating these costs were drawn mainly from discussions with both operators and manufacturers. It included actual experience and industry expectation where, as in the case of double-deckers, fully compliant vehicles did not yet exist.
Revenue changes
Changes in cost are not the only consequence of improving access to buses: some increases in passengers could also be expected. The extent to which low-floor buses may generate additional passengers and revenue is probably the most contentious issue in the whole compliance study. Results from services that have converted to low-floor buses are disparate and difficult to interpret because so often a switch to low-floor buses is accompanied by other changes; timetabling, new publicity, new
An alternative forecast
As was said when discussing future changes in bus fleet composition, the assumption was made that bus usage would continue at about the same level as present. However, if the present and successor governments were to adopt policies which effectively curbed the use of private cars and enhanced the operation of public transport, it is possible that the long downward trend in bus use might be reversed and replaced by a gradual growth in numbers of passengers. Such an assumption is, of course,
Conclusions
A study which looks a long way into the future cannot produce absolute measures of costs and revenues. The figures given earlier, based on the assumption that present levels of bus passengers continue, represent what is judged to be a reasonable estimate of the consequences of the regulations. The figures calculated in the alternative forecast, however, serve to emphasize that the financial outcome is highly dependent on assumptions made about extra passengers attracted by the access features.
References (4)
- Department of Transport Bus Data, 1997. A Compendium of Bus, Coach and Taxi Statistics, Department of Transport...
- Bus Industry Monitor, 1996. TAS Publications and Events,...
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