By this time I was not driving the school bus every day, but just relieving as necessary. But I was also driving for Tairua Bus Co (TBC) on quite a regular basis. One regular run was to Hamilton and back each Friday and again on Sunday, there was also quite a bit of charter work.
Almost without warning TBC management discontinued the Hamilton run so as its regular driver I was well and truly lent upon to 'do something about it'.
After exploring all possible options, I resurrected my Passenger Service Operators licence and originally used rental vans to provide the service.
This proved to be an expensive way of doing things so I bought an eight seater van (and another one as its backup).
However, passenger numbers were such that we often had to use both vehicles, which meant an extra driver etc.
I therefore bought 'something bigger' yep, a 50 seater Hino which also allowed 16 standing pax too.
This proved a bit hard to fill, and with the ridiculous road usage charges ($300 for 1000 km) made it uneconomical except for really big charters.
We also undertook to provide the same service to Auckland. For this we used a big vehicle as far as Kopu, where Auckland passengers were put on a van and the others continued to Hamilton.
I was then able to purchase a 22 seater Izusu named 'Humphrey' I have been tempted to write a book about the adventures of Humphrey but have not done so as yet.
This proved to be just about the right size.
Not just for the Passenger Service, but also for our many Motor sport activities. (See a subsequent Chapter).
With this variety of vehicles it meant that we could (and did) use just the right size of vehicle for either the Hamilton/Auckland runs or all the charter work we were now getting.
Frances At A Hillclimb
James Service Crew
