Joe Dawson
The Hawke's Bay Regional Council has opted for financial savings over proven service in awarding the contract for running the urban buses in Hawke's Bay.
The decision to scrap long-serving company Nimon and Sons as the provider of public transport in Hastings and Napier was purely a financial one, the
council says.
Despite winning out in the service and quality part of the tender evaluation, the price Nimon costed the work at was considered too high compared to that put forward by giant Hamilton company Go Bus.
Nimons said it could do the work for $1,977,360 a year, and with a per kilometre rate of more than $3. Go Bus said it could do the work for $1,868,283, with a per kilometre rate of $1.98.
The difference in the tender prices was $109, 077.
The council's passenger transport manager, Carol Gilbertson, said it was the per kilometre costs, which is a charge put on when routes are extended, that put Go Bus ahead. The regional council was planning to increase services significantly over the next five years.
"On an annual basis this price difference is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, which over the term of the contract [five years] runs into seven figures," Mrs Gilbertson said.
However Nimons general manager Pete Patterson said he couldn't fathom how Go Bus was able to do it so cheaply.
"But if Go Bus can do it and not go back to the council with their hand out, good luck to them."
Mr Patterson and Don Richards of Waipawa Buses, which lost 66 of 70 school bus runs to Go Bus in an Education Ministry shake-up, have both said the company would struggle.
Mr Richards said without the local knowledge and contacts it would struggle to navigate the "nooks and crannies" of the Bay's rural school bus runs.
However, Go Bus commercial manager Craig Worth said the company was well equipped to operate here.
"We moved into Bay of Plenty a number of years ago, we learnt a bit from that and we're looking forward to the challenge."
