Rotala Overview
Rotala provides commercial and subsidised bus routes for businesses, local authorities, the public and private individuals.
Rotala was formed in 2005 and has grown through the acquisition and amalgamation of local coach and bus operations and is one of the largest operators in its chosen geographical locations. Rotala now operates more than 500 vehicles and employs more than 1,500 members of staff. Our registered bus services carry more than 50,000,000 passengers every year. We in addition operate an extensive number of corporate transport contracts and private bus networks.
Rotala aims to develop sustainable revenue streams through the expansion of its commercial bus and contracted activities and by being an active participator in transport business trends in the UK. Our transport management expertise has taken us throughout the country, organising and delivering turn-key solutions to events and areas requiring many different types and capacities of transport.
The focus of the business is to build profitable and sustainable revenue. The business is composed largely of contracted or predictable commercial revenue streams which equate to more than 90% of current revenue levels.
To achieve this level of predictability the business focuses on the development of its three principal revenue streams: contract, commercial and charter.
Contract
The key aspect of Contracted Operations is that the service is delivered under contract, to specified standards, with the price for the service determined by the contract alone. Contracted operations service two types of customer:
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Individual organisations: these can have specific transport needs. Private bus networks are designed on a bespoke basis around these needs. One of the key factors which drives this customer need comes from the increasing prevalence of planning restrictions on new developments. These restrict car usage and available car parking facilities. There has been much growth in this area of business in recent years and government policy continues to drive change.
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Local authorities: since bus denationalisation in the 1980's the bus market has evolved and the dominant operators are now more focused on creating profitable route networks, in contrast to the pre-denationalisation approach when size and breadth of service were the sole concerns. Thus commercial bus groups have, over time, either curtailed or withdrawn services and Local Authorities have made decisions that there is a social need to subsidise the on-going provision of bus services to locations which would not support a commercial bus route. Contracts for these subsidised services operate on a variety of different bases but the contracted element of the revenue is included under this heading. Major examples of these types of services during this accounting year were operated under contract to Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), Worcestershire County Council and Staffordhsire County Council together with many smaller entities.
Commercial
On a purely commercial bus service, the company takes all the risk of operation. Where a contracted service obliges the operator to take an element of revenue risk (the proportion of which can vary considerably), the variable element of the revenue is also included under this heading. Since its foundation Rotala has considerably expanded the number of commercial services it operates in the West Midlands, the South East and the North West.
Charter
Besides the main business streams above, Rotala also provides a transport management service to a variety of customers. Typically this covers business or service disruption and bespoke large event management.