Lucketts Travel
Encyclopedia
Coach (vehicle)
A coach is a large motor vehicle, a type of bus, used for conveying passengers on excursions and on longer distance express coach scheduled transport between cities - or even between countries...
hire and excursion company based in Fareham
Fareham
The market town of Fareham lies in the south east of Hampshire, England, between the cities of Southampton and Portsmouth, roughly in the centre of the South Hampshire conurbation.It gives its name to the borough comprising the town and the surrounding area...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, employing 70 people with a turnover in 2007 of £4.5m.
The main vehicle type is the Scania
Scania AB
Scania Aktiebolag , commonly referred to as Scania AB or just Scania, is a major Swedish automotive industry manufacturer of commercial vehicles - specifically heavy trucks and buses...
Irizar
Irizar
Irizar Group is a Spanish-based builder of luxury coach vehicle bodies, established in 1889. It is located in Ormaiztegi in the Basque Country, Spain...
coach, in either 49 executive or 53 standard seat configuration. They have over 60 vehicles which range from 8 (7 + driver) seat Mercedes Benz Vito/Viano to 79 seat Neoplan Skyliner
Neoplan Skyliner
The NEOPLAN Skyliner is a double-deck multi-axle luxury touring coach built by the German coach manufacturer and MAN SE subsidiary NEOPLAN Bus GmbH.-History:...
coaches.
Lucketts Travel are part of Lucketts Holdings, and owned by the Lucketts Travel Group, who also own fellow south coast operators, Worthing Coaches
Worthing Coaches
Worthing Coaches is a Worthing-based coaching division of Lucketts Travel. Like its parent, Worthing Coaches also operate excursion and private hire services. The main type of coach they operate are Scania Irizars in a red version of the Lucketts Travel livery....
and Flagship Eastbourne.
History
The company was founded in 1926 as a haulage and storage company and only bought its first coach in 1976.The company was started by Harry Luckett, the current chairman's father. The business was predominantly a haulage
Haulage
Haulage may refer to:* The business of being a haulier or hauler , also called haulage contractor, common carrier, contract carrier, or private carrier, in other words of transporting goods by road or rail for other companies or one's own company.* The horizontal transport of ore, coal, supplies,...
and storage business but other activities were entered into, including keeping chickens and other farmyard animals.
David Luckett joined the company in 1963 and took over shortly after in 1966 when Harry died unexpectedly. The company’s haulage business continued and went from strength to strength in the late 1960s and early 1970s, working for major names such as Ready Mix Concrete and Schweppes.
David purchased the company’s first coach in 1976, choosing to drive it himself. It proved a very enjoyable and successful venture and the second coach was soon on its way. By the mid-1980s the coach fleet had outnumbered the haulage fleet and it was clear which way the company was proceeding.
The 3rd generation of Lucketts joined the company; Steve in 1983 and Ian in 1985. Since then the company has grown to a turnover of over £4.5 million per year and employs over 70 people. They have recently relaunched their Driver Training Academy, and employed a driver trainer, to instruct candidates for their PCV test, and train current employees in new legislation and courses, such as the NVQ and Driver CPC.
The company has also recently redeveloped their Fareham depot, to include the demolition of many of the current buildings and the construction of a new 3 storey building, incorporating offices, sales area, vehicle workshop and staff (including drivers) rest rooms. This has provided more space for vehicle parking, and an enlarged workshop and office space.
Current Operations
On 12 January 2009 Lucketts Travel took over operation of all the National Express routes from Portsmouth- London- Portsmouth, Chichester- London- Chichester and also Portsmouth- Bristol- Portsmouth. As part of this contract, 12 new "58 plate" Caetano LevanteCaetano Levante
The Caetano Levante is a coach body built on the Scania K-series 6x2 & 4x2, Volvo B12B 4x2 chassis and recently Volvo B9R 4x2 chassis, exclusively for National Express in the UK...
coaches have been purchased, all with Scania engines. All the driving and operations staff were transferred from Tellings-Golden Miller
Tellings-Golden Miller
Tellings-Golden Miller , a subsidiary of Arriva, is a bus service and coach operator in the United Kingdom.-Golden Miller:Reputedly, Fred Varney began the Golden Miller company with the winnings from a bet made on the horse Golden Miller, which won the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National in...
, the previous operators, to Lucketts Travel at the date of changeover. Since the start of the contract, 2 additional "09 plate" vehicles have also been added to the National Express fleet (in face of the competition from Firstgroup's "Greyhound" services), one of which is in Armed Forces Day livery, and another (FJ09AOZ, fleetnumber X4965) carried a special silver livery for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in April 2011). In August and September 2011, four new Volvo B9R / Caetano Levante 2s were delivered for National Express duties - these will displace four of the original Scania / Levantes - two for general fleet duties (which will be painted in the corporate livery), and two for National Express special and duplicate journeys.
The bulk of the current coach fleet (including that of the Worthing Coaches and Flagship Eastbourne subsidiaries) is made of Scania
Scania
Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...
chassis with Irizar
Irizar
Irizar Group is a Spanish-based builder of luxury coach vehicle bodies, established in 1889. It is located in Ormaiztegi in the Basque Country, Spain...
bodywork, however there are also several Mercedes minicoaches, and three ex-London double-deck buses, which are mainly used on school contracts. The latest additions to the fleet are three Scania K400EB4 vehicles with OmniExpress bodywork by Finnish company Lahden (YT11LPA/C/E), bringing the total within the company to five, the other two being acquired in 2009. Two further examples followed in the summer (YT11LPU/V), although these may be loan vehicles, as they are in all-over white livery, and carry legals for Scania, with Luckett's details being displayed in the lower entrance door - nevertheless, they have been allocated fleetnumbers - 5361 (LPV) and 5360 (LPU).