Fifty years ago, in August 1972, the new identity was being rolled out across England and Wales
It’s a miserable week of weather at the start of August, with low temperatures across Britain and the odd spell of torrential rain. In depots across England and Wales, managers, engineers are already embroiled in the business of changing their vehicles over from their long-established, traditional colours to the new Corporate Identity.
Pages from the first edition of the NBC corporate identity manual of 1972, issued shortly after the 19 July letter. Source: NBC/The Bus Archive.
Since instructions and diagrams were sent to the local operating companies in June, the first pages of the new Corporate Identity Manual have been supplemented with detailed instructions on how to apply the new liveries, paint specifications and the precise configuration of the new symbol and company names. On 11 August, Ron Whitehouse, Group Public Relations Officer, writes to the General Managers of the 40 or so subsidiary companies issuing additional pages for the manual, the first in a series of drawings showing how the new identity should be applied, including the precise position of the new symbol and lettering, across a range of typical vehicles from venerable double-deckers to the brand new single-deck Leyland National, designed and manufactured as a joint venture between NBC and Leyland Vehicles.
Coaches are the priority as NBC seeks to capitalise on the growing recognition of the new ‘white coach’ express network. For buses, each company has been encouraged to paint a number of vehicles as soon as possible to make sure there is momentum behind a public campaign planned for the Autumn.
Local operating companies have also been encouraged to apply the identity in interim form, applying the new symbol and distinctive lettering to buses their traditional liveries so that it will gain recognition before proper repainting can be done.
Local companies across England and Wales applied the new identity following the precise layout specified in the Corporate Identity Manual, the first loose-leaf pages of which appeared in June 1972, with additional detailed drawings and instructions following over the following weeks for companies to add in to their copy of the Manual. Yorkshire Woollen’s Fleetline 693 appears in the new identity after a repaint. The ‘Yorkshire’ company name at the front is a local addition, and not part of the NBC’s standard specification. Photo and copyright: I T Langhorn.
By and large it’s going well. Coaches are being repainted into white at a rapid rate, while buses are reappearing in poppy red and leaf green as they complete routine overhauls. But there are a few areas which need attention.
First, both Norman Wilson, the design consultant responsible for the new identity, and the NBC’s HQ staff responsible for implementing it, are dissatisfied with the results of the ‘interim application’ using existing liveries and in many cases, cream-coloured lettering to match the old-style lining on buses. Whitehouse’s letter of 11 August suggests that companies “may find it economical to avoid the interim stage of ‘cream’ transfers and apply ‘white’ transfers immediately… For those fleets with waists or intermediate bands of cream, white transfer can be applied and the band painted white immediately without waiting for a total re-paint. For complicated liveries, eg cream window mouldings; more than one intermediate band, etc, this suggestion will not be practical.”
Preparing a bulk order of transfers of the monochrome NBC symbol and company names in Wilson’s new National lettering, Whitehouse asks General Managers to let him know how many white and how many cream transfers they will need for each fleets. An effect of this instruction is that only a few companies adopt the interim cream version of the new identity.
The application of the Bauhaus-inspired NBC symbol and lettering in traditional cream to match the existing liveries blunted the modernising intent of the corporate identity, and was short-lived. Devon General’s modern NBC symbol and fleetnames have been applied in cream to the traditional Exeter Corporation colours of Leyland Titan PD2 no 236, seen in Exeter in 1973.. Picture: Richard Price Collection.
Second, the carefully-specified coach and bus liveries omit a whole category of vehicle, and across NBC company chief engineers are puzzled: Yorkshire Traction’s chief engineer exclaims on 8 August that “there appears to be a gap, in that we do not know what livery to paint our semi-coaches… and I have no instructions on this point.”
For express and tour services, and for local hire, the new National white coach livery is to be used. For local buses, it’s all-over red or green with white bands, depending on ‘the company’s tradition’. But the corporate identity does not yet cover the company’s many ‘semi-coach’ or ‘dual-purpose’ coaches and buses Equipped with coach seats, for many NBC subsidies these provide some of their higher-profile, higher-profit services such as regional express routes or express commuter services on regional routes into London, notably London Country’s Green Line routes.
Internal memos from Yorkshire Traction suggest using National white but substituting the local company’s name in Wilson’s new lettering for the ‘NATIONAL’ brand. “To my mind this is an advantage”, he argues, “as we could without too much trouble change vehicles into and out of national livery without a complete repaint.” In a letter to NBC HQ on 17 August, East Midland’s General Manager highlights the problem that “our… semi-coaches have to alternate on stage-carriage [bus] work because they are vehicles receiving bus grant… There is quite a variety of colour styles spread over the years, particularly with coaches … and the only suggestion I can make is that they are painted white with a green band” to differentiate them from ‘normal’ buses. “The semi-coaches will have to be done on a similar basis, although the quantity of green will be greater.”
From the archives: on 17 August 1972, the East Midland General Manager writes on the ‘touchy subject’ of changing company colours as part of adopting the NBC identity. Source: The Bus Archive.
There’s also the question of what to do where the local company’s ‘traditional’ colour isn’t green or red – maroon, say, or blue. Maroon (or ‘dark red’) is generally replaced with NBC poppy red. But the joint companies of East Midland and Mansfield District – using maroon and green respectively – come under pressure to adopt the standard NBC green livery for all of their buses. Their General Manager responds to D Graham at NBC HQ on 17 August relenting: “I confirm my agreement to both Companies adopting the National green colour but, of course, the subject is a very touchy one as far as East Midland staff are concerned.” There are practical issues to deal with too: “I will have to advise the Chesterfield Corporation of the colour change because their vehicles are green also.” And moreover: “It will have to be appreciated that the East Midland vehicles will look a little bit odd for some time to come, because the National green over the maroon will not give the correct shade of green. This problem, however, will be common to a large number of companies and, obviously, the position will be right in the long run.”
The new corporate identity forces some compromises – including the adoption of standard leaf green to replace East Midland’s previous maroon or dark red, reflecting its integration with its sister company Mansfield District. Picture: Martyn Cummins and Richard Price.
To complicate things further, although the company is pressing ahead with the roll-out of the white coach – but “the re-painting of any vehicles cannot be properly undertaken immediately because… the only transfers we have are 50 East Midland suitable for coaches painted in the full National specification, but these have the red line under the Company’s name, whereas, in fact, we are proposing to adopt the National green.”
Having taken the decision to switch company colour from red to green in August 1972, East Midland found itself stuck with a large number of transfers for its coaches with Norman Wilson’s National lettering underlined in red, temporarily halting its roll-out of the new National identity.
Anxieties and practical challenges over which colours to adopt will continue over the coming months. The next blog will look at why, for some reason, NBC HQ turns out to be less than decisive when it comes to the use of National blue.
Read more about how the modernist-inspired design of the NBC identity was shaped by Norman Wilson’s design influences, combining his three key elements: bold, uniform colours, his distinctive typeface, and a striking monochrome version of his NBC symbol, wordlessly conveying the nature of the business, all drawn together in a grid-based layout which brought a sense of uniformity and modernity across disparate companies and an enormous variety of vehicle types.
If you have recollections of the roll-out of the new livery, how it was managed, or remember your initial reaction to it, please let us know. We’d be happy to include these in a future blog, and perhaps in the Manual book itself. Get in touch using the form on this page, or the contact page here: https://nationalbusmanual.com/contact/
Sincere thanks to The Bus Archive for providing access to the NBC archive and the original papers on which this blog is based.
Look out for the forthcoming article in the modernist magazine by Richard Price looking at the career and impact of Norman Wilson, the graphic designer and typographer responsible for the NBC corporate identity,
Fifty years ago today, on 19 July 1972, NBC announced their plan to launch a new identity for local buses across England and Wales. Modernism was coming up your street.
On this day, 19 July, in 1972, NBC decided on its approach to bus liveries. NBC HQ had been experimenting with different approaches and colours since April, when it was announced that Alder Valley and Crosville would be taking part in trials to identify new, standard colours for local buses across England and Wales.
NBC’s red and green bus liveries, designed in 1972 by Norman Wilson, combined standardised bright shades of the ‘traditional’ bus colours, a striking monochrome version of Wilson’s NBC N-and-shadow arrow symbol, and local company names in his National lettering. The white band intended by Wilson was initially omitted on some types of vehicle, but widely adopted later. Picture: Martyn Cummins/Richard Price; typeface digitised by Nick Job.
This was not a complete surprise. In his speech, launching the corporate identity and its first application to express coaches, chairman Fred Wood told General Managers that: “the great bulk of our business (say 85%) is still in stage-carriage. We must therefore continue to maintain pressure in this main area. … The traditional liveries and names will continue although we expect to propose a linkage via a common emblem for all NBC companies. … The livery of the Express Coach which you will see shortly is only one expression of the new corporate identity programme which will eventually permeate all the visual aspects of NBC.”
Though the identity acknowledged the preponderance of reds and greens in bus companies across the country, Wood’s emphasis on ‘retaining traditional colours’ was rather misleading, and understated the form and radicalism of the emerging design.
Wood’s design adviser, Norman Wilson had been working on the design of the bus livery since the start of the year, and though the striking and commercially-important roll-out of the ‘white coach’ took precedence, the visible impact of the new identity for local buses across shopping streets, rural roads, factories and housing estates was to be much more pervasive.
Modernism coming up your street: Wilson’s identity drew inspiration from the Swiss school of graphic design and the earlier Bauhaus. Picture: Eastern Counties’ LN544 climbs Orford Hill in Norwich on its way to Eaton in 1974. Picture: Bernard Watkin, courtesy of the Eastern Transport Collection Society.
We will look in more detail in a future blog at Wilson’s design influences for applying the identity to buses, but it combined his three key elements: bold, uniform colours, his distinctive typeface, and a striking monochrome version of his NBC symbol, wordlessly conveying the nature of the business, all drawn together in a grid-based layout which brought a sense of uniformity and modernity across disparate companies and an enormous variety of vehicle types.
The purpose, as well as reminding people of the scale of NBC itself, was to project the sense of a welcoming, modern and reliable service to users and staff alike. It was an attempt to arrest the large modal shift from the local bus to the private car, a trend which was accelerating in the late 1960s and early 1970s, eating into the company’s core business, and eroding the commercial viability of public transport.
Norman Wilson and NBC’s commercial team trialled the red version of the new identity for local buses at subsidiary Alder Valley’s Reading depot, where variations were applied to a range of double- and single-deck buses. A bus in the earlier colours can just be seen in the background, illustrating the contrast with new ‘poppy red’. Picture: Norman Wilson, from the Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections.
From May, Wilson lifted his experimental designs from the page and onto vehicles. Replacing the huge variety of traditional local colours, two new standard shades of red and green were adopted – each company generally adopting the new version of its previous colour for continuity – and minimal decoration in the form of bright white lines, with a common layout applied to buses across the country. Wilson and NBC HQ staff worked with Alder Valley’s Reading depot to trial the red livery; and with Crosville to experiment with the layout and different shades of green.
Though local company general managers had seen this coming, the move was highly controversial across the industry. Following the loss of the identity and management of their prestigious coach services, subsumed into the new ‘National’ express network of uniform white coaches, the extension of the new corporate identity would see the independent public profile of companies eroded further.
Experiments with the green version of the local bus identity were carried out in May and June 1972 with NBC’s subsidiary in north Wales and Merseyside, Crosville. In this picture, the identity has been applied to a new Leyland National in a darker green than was ultimately selected. Without the traditional body mouldings to guide coach-painters, it was decided initially not to apply a mid-height white relief line to this type of vehicle. The fact that the green illustrated here was much darker than the ‘leaf green’ ultimately chosen didn’t stop NBC’s publicity department from using this picture extensively in advertising in the following years. Picture: Norman Wilson, from the Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections.Also at Alder Valley’s Reading depot, Wilson and team used this Bristol VR to test the bold red colour – the same as that used for the NBC symbol and National lettering. The position of the symbol and company name in National lettering was carefully specified for most vehicles, with an approach inspired by the graphic designer’s grid: for many double-deckers it was to be in line with the rear of the wheel arch, ensuring broadly consistent layout for most vehicles. This picture was used to illustrate the correct layout in the first edition of the Corporate Identity Manual. Picture: Norman Wilson, from the Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections.
NBC’s Chief Marketing Officer Ron Whitehouse set out the approach in a letter from NBC HQ to General Managers on 19 July 1972:
“I write to advise you that, following discussion with regional directors, the Chairman and Chief Executive have decided upon a standard method of applying corporate identity to stage carriage buses together with rationalisation of livery colours.
“The corporate symbol and companies name (brief trading title) in corporate lettering is to be applied to buses in a common way throughout the group. Detailed specifications have been prepared and are in the course of printing. Copies will be sent to you shortly. Transfers are to be prepared centrally… There will be three livery colours only (with certain temporary exemptions) being – Red (BS series 2660 ref. 0-005); Green (BS series 381C, ref. 218), White (National W1) for relief (waistbands, symbols and titles). Creams will be discontinued.
Pages from the first edition of the NBC corporate identity manual of 1972, issued shortly after the 19 July letter. Source: NBC/The Bus Archive.
“The exemptions for the time being may be ‘blue’ bus fleets, and Regional Directors will be talking with Chief General Managers regarding the future of this colour.
“Other exemptions might be the livery of fleets of vehicles operated in partnership with local authorities. However, all exemptions must be approved by Regional Director[s] in consultation with the Chief Executive.
“The desire is to see the symbol and corporate lettering applied to fleets within three months. Consequently, there has to be an interim application to existing deliveries of new transfers (in, say, cream to match current practice) followed by the adoption of standard colours at normal repaint stage. New bus intake will be painted in the new standard colours.”
This led to an interim phase in which Wilson’s new National lettering and NBC symbol were applied onto existing old-fashioned liveries. Though these generally appeared in white, in many cases the modern typography and symbol were applied in a cream colour to blend in with the existing cream relief decoration which had been applied traditionally by many companies. This blunted the modernising impact of the change, and was steadily phased out.
The application of the NBC and lettering in traditional cream to match the existing liveries undermined the modernising intent of the corporate identity, and was short-lived. Alder Valley’s Dennis Loline no 835 is in Aldershot in June 1974. Picture: Richard Price Collection.
In future blogs we will look at Norman Wilson’s approach to designing the local bus identity, the curious decision to eliminate the existing corporate blue colour from the bus livery; and the challenges of a rapid roll-out.
If you have recollections of the roll-out of the new livery, how it was managed, or remember your initial reaction to it, please let us know. We’d be happy to include these in a future blog, and perhaps in the Manual book itself. Get in touch using the form on this page, or the contact page here: https://nationalbusmanual.com/contact/
Fifty years ago today, on 12 April 1972, NBC Chair Fred Wood ended the annual General Managers’ conference with a press launch to introduce the new ‘Greyhound-style’ National inter-city express network to the public, with the new corporate identity at its heart.
FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY… The second, and final, day of the General Manager conference started with an open forum – taking the whole morning – on “The management style of the National Bus Company”, led by eminent professor of management Roland Smith. The NBC’s senior staff had spent the previous day listening to an introduction to the organising principles for the new Central Activities Group, which saw local companies acting as contractors, providing express and coach tours under the National brand. They weren’t happy. The change meant the removal of their own company brands and fleetnames from the industry’s most prestigious services. Over the coming months they would press for a compromise.
But for now, the stage was Wood’s and he used it to set out his vision for the new National-branded inter-city coach network. In the interview below, Wood gets his points across. In fact the journalist seems to get the impression that all of the country’s coaches are about to be replaced. The references to old, traditional practices and sweeping away the traditional colours of the operating companies must have confirmed the General Managers’ worst fears about the loss of autonomy and identity for their companies. But that battle lay ahead.
Freddie Wood, NBC chair, at wheel of Eastern Counties’ RE858 – the prototype ‘white coach’, during the press launch of the National identity, express network and the ‘white coach’, Leicester, 12 April 1972. Source: NBC, The Bus Archive.
Wood gave a series of interviews in Leicester to the national newspapers and to the specialist press. Journalists were shown the prototype White Coach and National branding. This interview with Wood, by the London Evening News’ Iain Macaskill, gives an impression of the image of the industry Wood was aiming to make.
Super-bus challenges the train – Evening News, 12 April 1972. Iain Macaskill
‘Half-price’ super-bus challenges the train.
By Iain Macaskill, Evening News, 12 April 1972
Today, as rail travellers endure increasing chaos, Mr. Frederick Wood says he is in a position to make his dream come true interlinked motorway express buses which will face the railways with half-price competition. They will be equal to the world-famous Greyhound Services in the United States.
Freddie Wood, NBC chair, at the press launch of the National identity, express network and the ‘white coach’, Leicester, 12 April 1972. The National symbol always points to the right – though after the launch this was changed for the nearside on veichles, to avoid it pointing backwards as shown here. Source: London Evening News, The Bus Archive.
MR. FREDERICK WOOD rarely travels by bus. As a company chairman he is accustomed to the luxuries of a highly-polished, executive-class car.
Yet he is giving the British bus – the original motorised form of public transport – a new lease of life.
Until a year ago he had no real interest in the transport industry. He was comfortably seated behind a mahogany desk in the top executive suite of a chemical company. The idea even of riding in a bus was utterly remote.
Not so today. His high-speed talk about the British bus Is a temptation to clamber on to the nearest one to sample its delights.
COFFERS
For this latest whizz-kid in the transport world is performing a revolution which he hopes will put the long-distance coach way out in front of both inter-city rail and air services in the popularity stakes. To start all this by the end of the year – and see it through within five years.
How can he possibly make the bus, at present the bottom of the public transport league table, a money-making machine?
It all began a year ago when Mr. Wood was summoned to see Mr. John Peyton, Minister of Transport, and asked if he would like a top job in transport. Mr Wood said ‘Yes”, became a member of the board of the National Bus Company instantly, and its chairman in January this year. And it was then that the mammoth task of filling the depleted coffers of an ailing bus industry really began.
As a “commercial and marketing man” Mr Wood, 45, found many faults. The whole structure of the NBC was “disorganised”.
COMPANIES
There was a conglomeration of companies all under the same umbrella and running multi-coloured buses in various parts of the country in their own traditional way.
In the south from Portsmouth to Margate, the Maidstone and District, Southdown, East Kent and the London Country buses were operating. Further north there were United, Midland Red and others, all of them still largely operating the same system of management which they had 30 years ago.
Now, it is all to be changed. “My first aim is to get the whole lot operating under one flag”, said Mr. Wood.
COACHES
The first step will be to have a fleet of American style inter-city Greyhound coaches competing with British Rail and air traffic. “Air traffic is out as far as transport in this country in the future is concerned because the journeys are so relatively short between major centres. And most of our fares on inter-city services will be about half of British Rail fares, with little difference in the times.”
The first prototype ‘white coach’ prepared by Norman Wilson at Lowestoft‘s Eastern Coach Works in the week before the General Managers’ Conference in Leicester. It was revealed to General Managers Conference on the forecourt their hotel on 10 April, and was shown to the press two days later. The coach is Eastern Counties’ RE858. Photo: NBC.
And, of course, the new luxury coaches, which will replace the 4000 express coaches at present operated by the multitude of regional companies will be in the new splendid white livery with the name ‘National’ in red and blue letters. Motorways will speed up the present timetables which were designed for the ordinary A class roads.
The irritation of buying two different tickets if you have to change the colour of a bus on a long journey will be dispensed with.
COUNTRY
And there will also be a more secure future for the local bus services throughout the country, which regularly come under the threat of the axe. Success on the inter-city routes will mean cash for improvements rather than cutbacks on services for the country dweller.
As Mr. Wood enthused: “Air and rail transport are inflexible, but the bus is the most flexible and versatile form of moving people about en masse. And this is going to be the thing in the future.”
COSTS
To prove it he quoted examples. London to Bristol in 2½ hours. Return fare £2.50. By rail the cost is £4.10 return with a single journey time of two hours.
“But don’t forget that the bus takes you from city centre to city centre, not from station to station” added Mr. Wood.
He means business. But when did you ever last look forward to having a long distance trip on a bus – even if it did cost less? That is the real battle Mr. Wood has to win.
——
There’s more to follow on the design and launch of the NBC Corporate Identity. Do you have memories of the adoption and roll-out of the NBC Corporate Identity? If so get in touch using the form on this page, or the contact page here: https://nationalbusmanual.com/contact/
Fifty years ago today, on 10 April 1972, Fred Wood, in his 100th day as NBC Chair, took the General Managers’ annual conference by storm. Revealing his vision and plan to revive the fortunes of the bus and coach industry, he put the business’s new identity stage-centre – along with its creator, Norman Wilson.
It’s 100 days since Frederick Wood took up his appointment as chair of NBC, and this evening, at the annual conference of the General Managers of the local subsidiary companies, he will set out his approach for reviving NBC’s commercial fortunes.
Frederick Wood, NBC Chairman appointed on 1 January 1972, described himself as a ‘corporate identity man’. On his desk is the NBC symbol perspex box, handed out by Norman Wilson to each Board member in an effort to win them over. (Photo: NBC, The Bus Archive)
At 4-5pm, the delegates begin to arrive at the conference centre at a Leicester hotel, which will be the venue for three days of discussions and planning. And at 5:30pm, Wood is due to give his opening address. Mysteriously, ahead of everything else on the following day’s agenda – planning, marketing, cost and operations management – pride of place on the opening evening is given to a talk on something called “CORPORATE IDENTITY”, led by an outsider to the group – Mr N Wilson, a design consultant.
The original agenda for the 1972 General Managers’ conference: after the Chair’s introduction, the key address on the opening evening is Norman Wilson on ‘corporate identity’. (Source: Bus Archive)
The mystery doesn’t last long once Fred Wood is on his feet. He sees a bright future for NBC and its subsidiaries – but only if they can improve and manage cots and reliability on bus services (around 85 per cent of the business), and develop a profitable national coach network based on express services, tours and holidays, car rental – and anything else to which NBC’s resources and talent can be profitably deployed.
A national network requires a national identity. Wood argues that developing ‘a sound constructive ‘National’ image is central to successfully marketing a national product; drawing attention to NBC’s progress and performance; and to raising staff morale and commitment.
“I must here declare an interest and say frankly that I have been a lifetime “image” man. I was therefore a bit disturbed on my entry on the N.B.C. scene, to find the existence of a policy of virtual anonymity… . this cannot apply now in the light of our proposed policies and in fact this conference is being conducted under as large a glare of publicity as we can generate as a first move of the N.B.C. out of its chrysalis into the broad light of public view.
“We are convinced that the only way of maximising return on activities like Express is to operate a National system and in consequence we must develop as rapidly as possible a sound constructive ‘National’ image.
“The livery of the Express Coach which you will see shortly is only one expression of the new corporate identity programme which will eventually permeate all the visual aspects of N.B.C. such as uniform, literature, tickets, public signs and booking offices.
Norman Wilson, design consultant to the NBC Board, was the graphic designer responsible for all elements of the new corporate identity, working closely with Fred Wood as he had previously at Croda. (Photo: NBC)
It is left to Norman Wilson himself, speaking at 6pm, to set out the logic, the symbol, and the new National identity he has developed in concert with Wood. In line with Wood’s vision of operating companies acting solely as contractors to a new Central Activities Group, which is to run the new coach network, the names and brands of the operating companies will disappear entirely from their own vehicles. Whatever the merits of a National brand, it is this that grates with the General Managers of the operating companies in the room.
NBC General Managers in around 1970. (Source: NBC/The Bus Archive)
Norman Wilson’s session is billed as leading to a ‘discussion’ – but in the end this is not what happens. Instead, the General Managers are led from the room, through the lobby and outside onto the hotel forecourt – where the prototype White Coach is waiting for them to inspect -in full National livery with the red and blue symbol and logotype. And – with no local company name. The evening continues with dinner. There is enthusiasm for Wood’s bold optimistic vision and sense of purpose in reviving the fortunes of an industry in trouble. But as for the loss of local identities from the industry’s flagship project – there will be murmurs over the next two days of the General Managers’ conference, plotting, and opposition.
This is the first prototype ‘white coach’ prepared by Norman Wilson at Lowestoft‘s Eastern Coach Works in the week before the General Managers’ Conference in Leicester. It was revealed to General Managers Conference on the forecourt their hotel on 10 April, and was shown to the press two days later. The coach is Eastern Counties’ RE858. (Photo: NBC)
Sadly we don’t have a copy of Norman Wilson’s remarks at the conference – though you can get a good idea of his thinking here. But, from the Bus Archive, we do have a full set of Fred Wood’s notes, setting out his views on the business’s commercial prospects, the way ahead for stage bus services, and his vision for expansion of the express coach and holiday travel businesses. Throughout, it is clear that the corporate identity was central to his model of how to progress. The fact that he gave the most prominent speaking slot at his first conference with his General Managers to Norman Wilson is testament to that.
Here in full is Fred Wood’s speech setting a new course and ambition for NBC, and spelling out why corporate identity is central to it.
Frederick A S Wood, Chairman, National Bus Company: opening address to NBC General Managers’ Conference, Leicester, 10 April 1972.
Some of you may have felt a sense of dismay when you heard last summer of the intended appointment of another non-busman as Chairman of NBC. You may have wondered why the Minister should decide to nominate an unqualified businessman who has made his career in the chemical industry to succeed a chartered accountant who had spent most of his working life in the electrical industry. And, if there was this feeling of dismay, I sympathise. I have in the past often stoutly maintained that the best businesses are run by full-time professionals. However, as you might imagine in this case, I have to suggest that there may well be special factors which modify the general rule and make a team of part-time Chairman and full-time Chief Executive the best one to cope with the job at hand.
Fred Wood, NBC Chair, 1972-1978. (Photo: NBC)
Suffice it to say that I commenced in office on 1st January and on the same day Jim Skyrme took over from Tony Gailey as Chief Executive. I was glad to have been able to contribute to the selection process from which Jim emerged as the unanimous choice and I know it has given general satisfaction that we selected not only a life-time busman, but also a leading executive from N.B.C. itself.
In January, the new partnership of myself and Jim Skyrme began, supported by a reconstituted Board and the first one hundred days of the new regime expired at midnight last night.
The first hundred days smacks of a definite programme in the Kennedy, or even Wilson, tradition and I must therefore make clear that I do not believe in quick off-the-cuff solutions to major problems. When I discussed my appointment with John Peyton, I asked for and was specifically granted a five-year term instead of the more normal three years, because in my view three years is not a long enough period to accomplish the task of getting N.B.C. firmly on the road to long term viability. With these points in mind, you will not expect me to produce a list of definite objectives accomplished in this period. Rather we have been contenting ourselves specifically with reorganising and restructuring N.B.C. so that the company will be in the best possible shape to achieve the objectives that we have set.
You will by now be familiar with most of the details of the restructuring, but here are a few of the salient points.
1. We have taken steps to break down the schism between the part-time N.B.C. Board members and full-time management and also to allow Board members to contribute more to the work of N.B.C.
2. We have reduced the number of regions to three and modified; the regional structure so as to develop a more direct and dynamic chain of responsibility running from Chief Executive through Regional Director (and Executive) to Chief General Manager and then to General Manager.
3. We have introduced major new executive functions for vital areas such as Central Activities, (of which I shall speak more later), and Property.
As I have said, these and other changes are all designed to move N.B.C. as a whole into a better shape to tackle the very real problems and to enable us to fulfil our objective.
Before going any further, I must therefore give you my idea of what I see is our object. I have done my best to put this simply in one sentence and this is the result.
MY OBJECTIVE FOR N.B.C IS THAT WE SHOULD BE ABLE CONTINUOUSLY TO PROVIDE THOSE MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WHO WANT IT A GOOD RELIABLE PUBLIC ROAD TRANSPORT SERVICE AND MAKE A PROFIT FOR THE NATION IN DOING SO.
Now if this was a free-for-all instead of being the well-behaved gathering that it is, half the audience would be on its feet shouting me down and providing better alternatives as to what they consider our aims should be. I can hear the ghostly voices now:
“Who said you are supposed to make a profit? The 1968 Act says such and such…”
“Everyone knows that buses cannot be run out of the fare-box.”
“You should cut routes and services back relentlessly.”
“Jam up the fares so that every route pays.”
However, my view is that the only reasonable course open to us is to settle for a straightforward aim of service with profit and to get on with the job.
Before going on to say how I think we can achieve this aim, I should mention some of the background factors, good and bad, that I have taken into account in planning our strategy.
1. The major minus factor which faces us quite clearly is the persistent decline in stage-carriage passengers as a result of the public’s obstinate insistence on the delights of the private motor car.
2. Another is a serious erosion in the standard of performance, particularly as regards return on capital, in some parts of the company.
This can partly be attributed to the sometimes inevitable institutionalisation which often accompanies being part of a large group, whether nationalised or not. One of the great dangers of national ownership is that it removes the final sanction of bankruptcy. I feel reasonably sure that the results of some of the companies in the Group over the last three years would have been considerably different if they had been privately owned.
3. Despite the fact that most of the companies have been grouped together for years before the formation of N.B.C. in 1968, the degree of standardisation in vehicle and engine purchasing achieved to date cannot be regarded as satisfactory. Computer development has similarly been on a completely decentralised basis and even now we cannot decide whether it is best to brush or spray paint a vehicle.
“Even now we cannot decide whether it is best to brush or spray paint a vehicle.” A still from the NBC television advert “The colour’s changing”. (NBC, from Tony Pattison’s collection.)
4. I suggest that the industry at large has become far too complacent and used to citing the manifest difficulties that surround bus operations as reasons for indifferent results. An example of this feeling is the general attitude to the poor results of 1970. These are dismissed as being exceptional, when in fact it might be argued that any poor result for whatever reason arises at least in part out of some error or omission of management and that the disaster of 1970 could have been foreseen and partly if not completely averted.
5. Bus companies are controlled and to a considerable extent hamstrung by local authorities, traffic commissioners and government departments. Changes in government policy, regional planning and city development all affect us strongly.
All public services, and the bus is no exception, tend often to become very convenient political footballs and N.B.C. suffers from this at the local and national level.
On the plus side:
1. The bus remains throughout the world the most flexible and adaptable means of moving people about in bulk. Railways, mono-rails and similar devices must have a track, which in this century usually proves to be prohibitively expensive. Air travel is ineffective inside the U.K. as a means of public transport. And as campaigns by successive government against the private car proceed, the bus must eventually come into its own.
2. We have a monopoly or quasi-monopolistic position in many areas and however you like it that must have good points. Furthermore most of our companies are household names in their particular locality.
3. There is a prodigious amount of talent (not all of it fully used) in N.B.C. Our human resources in terms of management and labour are very real and very considerable.
4. We have excellent engineering facilities, maintenance centres, bus depots and much real estate capable of considerable development.
5. We are adequately capitalised for our needs (if we accept the rather quaint debt structure in which we work under the Exchequer).
Having outlined our main aim and listed plus and minus factors, I propose to explain to you our planned strategy to achieve our objective.
The strategy is two-pronged.
STAGE-CARRIAGE STILL CONSTITUTES THE VAST BULK OF OUR TRAFFIC AND EARNINGS. WE PROPOSE TO MAINTAIN AND IMPROVE OUR SERVICE IN THIS AREA BY WHATEVER MEANS·IS AT OUR DISPOSAL, SPECIFICALLY INCLUDING VITAL AND ENERGETIC MANAGEMENT AND METHODS, MARKETING, ECONOMIES AND RATIONALISATION.
WE INTEND VIGOROUSLY TO DEVELOP ALL OTHER LEGITIMATE AREAS OF GROWTH IN PUBLIC TRANSPORT TO WHICH OUR ASSETS IN HUMAN RESOURCES AND EQUIPMENT CAN BE APPLIED. SPECIFICALLY WE WILL EXPAND ON A NATIONAL BASIS INTER-CITY SERVICES, EXTENDED TOURS AND POSSIBLY DEVELOP INTO SELF-DRIVE CAR HIRE, TRAVEL AGENCY AND OTHER ALLIED ACTIVITIES.
Now to explain these.
As I have said, the great bulk of our business (say 85%) is still in stage-carriage. We must therefore continue to maintain pressure in this main area. It will, for the time being at least, continue· to be operated on a company basis, although of course, we shall continue the policy of merging companies where appropriate. The traditional liveries and names will continue although we expect to propose a linkage via a common emblem for all N.B.C. companies.
We must ceaselessly pursue all possible avenues of profitable service in this area. We must examine bus and mini-bus franchise schemes for country areas. We must consider jointly with the Post Office and National Freight a return to the village carrier for some areas. In every possible way we must seek out what the customer wants and try to fulfil his requirements at a profit.
I believe that in a few years, enough pressure from governments here and abroad will bring counter-legislation against the car which will bring the bus into its own, but we shall be realistic and assume that that is not going to happen for the next few years and that in that period the car will continue its relentless progress.
In which case, we may well be faced with further declines in passengers on stage-fare business however hard we try to fulfil the public’s requirements. If that is the case, how do we tackle the problem? The classic answer often thrown at us is (a) increase fares and (b) reduce service.
It always seems to me that this is advanced by those without hard business experience, who completely fail to understand the unique problems and disadvantages of a declining market. Raising prices may cope with inflation but when applied to a diminishing volume of business, the effect is to produce nasty side-effect of driving away even more customers. Eliminating routes leaves existing overheads with less business to service them and valuable facilities only partly used. I believe if we were to try and solve the problems of N.B.C. by increased fares and reduced routes alone that we might well be out of business before my term is up.
What is the answer?
You must, of course, increase fares and reduce routes as circumstances dictate, but I believe the key to the problem is to find profitable growth areas for all these resources of human talent and physical facilities to be used on as the decline in stage-carriage proceeds, so that the slack may be taken up.
This reasoning lies behind the establishment of the Central Activities Group, about which I now propose to speak in some detail.
As you will know, we have set up the Central Activities Group and the Chief Executive has nominated David Glassborow as the Director in charge. This Group will have a growing number of divisions. The first two of these will be (1) Inter-City Express Operations and (2) Extended Tours.
As far as Express is concerned, I believe that this is an area where we can improve on a necessary and popular service to part of the public to a very real extent. This can be a growth area and one in which we can work profitably. I visited Greyhound in the States last year and some of my thinking on Express has been influenced by their experience. At any rate, we propose to follow very broadly the recommendations of the Garratt report, which run briefly as follows:-
(a) All Express operations of N.B.C. companies will be run as one service under one management as a division of the Central Activities Group.
(b) There will be a common livery for all the coaches concerned and naturally common working systems, tickets and general conditions.
(c) Those companies concerned only with coaching will be absorbed into the Central Activities Group.
(d) Those stage carriage companies that presently run Express Services will continue to own, operate and maintain the vehicles under a leasing arrangement with the Express Division.
The National identity was rapidly applied to inter-city express coaches and tour vehicles, managed by NBC’s Central Activities Group. Initially te identity of the local operating company was to be lost entirely (Photo: Richard Price
Next we shall consider Extended Tours. This again is a potentially profitable area which we shall operate in future as a centrally-controlled function.
Self-drive hire cars present a growth area in transport to which some of our facilities may be usefully applied. Our network of booking offices suggests that there may be good grounds for us considering a national chain of travel agencies and there are other areas that we shall be exploring as the months pass.
In addition to the Central Activities Group, we shall strive to maximise our return from our substantial property interests and to this end a Property Department has been set up under the direction of Mr. Womar.
Broadly speaking therefore our policy is to continue to press the traditional stage-carriage business through the three new regional groups and to apply new and strong effort on our centralised activities.
So far I have told you of our reconstruction, told you of our main aim, listed a few plus and minus factors and explained our principal strategy.
Before I conclude I would like to deal with a number of specific points which may help you to understand the thinking behind some of the more obvious tangible aspects of this policy.
I must first give you my views on corporate identity or if you prefer, image. I must here declare an interest and say frankly that I have been a lifetime “image” man. I was therefore a bit disturbed on my entry on the N.B.C. scene, to find the existence of a policy of virtual anonymity. Tony Gailey and others explained all this to me and I accept that in the past, with all activities being conducted by the companies, there was an active disincentive to a central image. However that was in the past, it cannot apply now in the light of our proposed policies and in fact this conference is being conducted under as large a glare of publicity as we can generate as a first move of the N.B.C. out of its chrysalis into the broad light of public view.
“N-and-shadow”… and shadow. The NBC symbol perspex box, handed out by Norman Wilson to each Board member in an effort to win them over. (Photo: John Oldfield)
We are convinced that the only way of maximising return on activities like Express is to operate a National system and in consequence we must develop as rapidly as possible a sound constructive ‘National’ image.
A concern for the outward image always brings with it the accusation that one is more concerned with window-dressing than making real progress. I strongly refute this, however, and will list a few specific reasons why I believe in a strong corporate identity programme.
It is obviously absolutely necessary to the successful marketing of a national product.
To focus public attention on oneself is to provide a constant and irremovable goad towards progress, better performance and growth.
Internal morale at all levels is automatically stimulated and inspired.
The livery of the Express Coach which you will see shortly is only one expression of the new corporate identity programme which will eventually permeate all the visual aspects of N.B.C. such as uniform, literature, tickets, public signs and booking offices.
The second specific subject I wish to refer to is performance.
As I briefly mentioned, it is my view that the performance of many companies has been extremely poor particularly in terms of return on capital. Although we are owned by the Government, we are a commercial concern and we must be judged and judge ourselves on performance. High performance is the goal-scoring of commercial football. It is the tangible sign of all those virtues which make the good businessman and which when employed make the good business.
We must reduce and contain expense, not only operating expenses but also any form of unnecessary expense or expenditure. We must maximise returns by marketing, hard selling, persuasion or whatever means are at our disposal. However we do it, the criteria must be success.
Finally I would like to answer the hypothetical question – Is there a good future for the N.B.C. and for management in the N.B.C.?
For the last twenty years I have followed the commercial fortunes of many ventures of all shapes and kinds in the U.K. and elsewhere and from this accumulated experience I drew the firm conclusion that despite the many obvious difficulties that confront us the National Bus Company and its subsidiaries have not only every chance of viability, but that we can, if we really harness all our resources., become one of the nationally-owned enterprises that regularly provides a good service and makes money at the same time.
My vision for the National Bus Company for 1976 runs as follows:-
We will be a leaner, tougher organisation than now in terms of men and vehicles. Attitudes will have changed so that performance and profit will be key factors.
Our capital employed will be much the same as to-day, but we will be making a substantially better return. Say £20,000,000 before tax and interest.
60% of our revenue will arise from stage-carriage traffic, which will conducted by fewer companies, still working under many of the old names but clearly linked together as part of a national service. The other 40% of the business will be in Express, tours and the other central activities which will all be working under a by then familiar ‘National’ image.
N.B.C. will be able to claim simply that it is as efficient and as profitable as commercial concerns of comparable size in similar industries.
I believe that a vital performance-orientated exercise of the sort I have described must offer enough posts of challenge and responsibility to all those in the industry who wish to strive for them. My vision of 1976 may not be exactly to everyone’s taste, but I hope it will commend itself to you. I invite you to join Jim Skyrme and me and the whole Board and management of the National Bus Company in turning this vision into a reality.
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There’s more to follow on the design and launch of the NBC Corporate Identity. Do you have memories of the adoption and roll-out of the NBC Corporate Identity? If so get in touch using the form on this page, or the contact page here: https://nationalbusmanual.com/contact/
National Bus Company Corporate Identity Manual 