The coach sector is in danger of falling. This is due to the corona measures, combined with the capital-intensive character of the sector. Industry association Bus transport in the Netherlands calculated that there is at least half a billion euros in damage and that 40% of the companies are in danger of going bankrupt. This leaves 2500 people out of work. Especially high costs for lease and interest threaten to kill the industry. In a letter to State Secretary Keijzer of EZK, the Netherlands bus transport asks the coach sector to help find a sustainable solution to the ongoing high costs for the 4000 Dutch coaches.

At almost all bus companies, turnover fell to zero due to the corona measures. This is problematic because coach transport is often seasonal. In the intervening periods, companies pass through the reserves created. The Corona crisis is now causing a major problem: the reserves have run out and a buffer is no longer being built up. A large number of bus companies therefore get into payment problems. This threatens a clear-cut in the sector. 

Chairman Theo Vegter: “This demolition has major social consequences. Coach companies play an important, but not always visible, social role. Who has not been on a bus during a school trip? But not only school trips are a thing of the past. The outings of vulnerable groups such as disabled or elderly people and the transport of sports clubs, employees and pupils are also at risk. ”

Sector capital intensive, no survivability with smaller transport capacity

The fixed costs in the touring car sector are high and consist of more than just personnel costs. Especially the costs for the coaches themselves are a millstone now that there is no income. This while the sector has just invested in fleet renewal in order to work in an environmentally friendly manner. This problem will remain acute in the near future. In the expected one and a half meter society, the advantage of the low cost per passenger due to a high occupancy rate, normally the strength of the sector, will lapse.

Coach companies are capital intensive. For example, the operational costs per bus amount to approximately € 60.000 per year. SME entrepreneurs cannot bear such ongoing costs without adequate income, as is the case during the corona crisis. Where possible, the companies reduce ongoing costs, for example by arranging deferral of payments for the coach sector with the lease companies. 

Theo Vegter about this: 'I am happy with the flexible approach of leasing companies. Unfortunately, deferring lease payments is not a sustainable solution. The turnover that we have to live on in lean periods has disappeared and will not return. The companies simply cannot afford the approximately 240 million euros in costs for the fleet this year. We therefore ask the government to provide a solution for this in the second package of support measures, for example by setting up an emergency fund, temporarily taking over the ownership of the company resources (the coaches) or by giving a 100% state guarantee (and eventually debt restructuring options). on loans with long installments. "

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