Yelloway administrative forms and related items

Charting, that is to say the recording and control of bookings, at Yelloway was most important. The system was most thorough and second to none in the industry - even though the road staff sometimes thought otherwise! Each service departure carried the 'Charts' and a Traffic Sheet. (This particular sheet measured 389mm by 229mm (or as it was in those days 15 and 3/8 inches by 9 inches) and since a sheet that size is too big for my scanner I have had to upload it in two separate halves). That illustrated is for the Torquay day south service on the last day of the through service of summer 1971 on Saturday 30 October. When agents booked tickets the confirmation copy was sent into the Yelloway Chart Room at Rochdale. Each service departure had an individual charting sheet numbered 1 to 44 on which all the relevant details of the booking were written (Ticket number, boarding point, intermediate connecting point, final destination point, initials of charting clerk (forming booking reference number) and booking agents name). As one sheet was filled additional sheets were added so that on a busy summer weekend departure there might be umpteen sheets just for one specific service departure where many duplicate coaches were required. The Chart Room staff prepared a full analysis of bookings for the each service departure. The analysis sheets featured numerous...... Continued on next item.......

Continued from previous item..... squares with the pick-up points along the top edge and the set down points down the side. Totals for every required point to point were written in the appropriate square. Every column and every line was totalled and balanced then a grand total for the service obtained - all done mentally without the aid of a calculator. The total figures were transferred to the Traffic Sheet which was attached to all the chart sheets. The total showing the number of passengers to be collected from each pick-up point and the total showing the number to be set down at each setting down point were completed on the sheet. At busy times a more detailed breakdown of the numbers of passengers going forward on the connecting services of Associated Motorways, Royal Blue and Devon General was shown. The 'Charts' were carried by the Leading Driver/Senior Leading Driver or, at busier times, the Road Steward or Inspector who was overseeing the operation of the service coach and its duplicates. I created this reproduction showing just the passengers that travelled south of Cheltenham, there were additional duplicates that terminated there. On the Torquay bound coach 45 passengers were carried on the 49 seat coach. Duplicates would be run as far south as required and would terminate wherever required. Gloucester passengers would often be carried on a vehicle terminating at Cheltenham to relieve the coach operating on the 'bottom half'. A couple of photographs showing the coach (TDK 687J) parked in Torquay after the run this day may be seen at: www.ipernity.com/doc/davidslater-spoddendale/33946975/in/album/690101 and www.ipernity.com/doc/davidslater-spoddendale/33946979/in/album/690101

Charting, that is to say the recording and control of bookings, at Yelloway was most important. The system was most thorough and second to none in the industry - even though the road staff sometimes thought otherwise! Each service departure carried the 'Charts' and a Traffic Sheet. (This particular sheet measured 389mm by 229mm (or as it was in those days 15 and 3/8 inches by 9 inches) and since a sheet that size is too big for my scanner I have had to upload it in two separate halves). That illustrated is for the Torquay day north service on the last day of the through service of summer 1971 on Sunday 31 October. When agents booked tickets the confirmation copy was sent into the Yelloway Chart Room at Rochdale. Each service departure had an individual charting sheet numbered 1 to 44 on which all the relevant details of the booking were written (Ticket number, boarding point, intermediate connecting point, final destination point, initials of charting clerk (forming booking reference number) and booking agents name). As one sheet was filled additional sheets were added so that on a busy summer weekend departure there might be umpteen sheets just for one specific service departure where many duplicate coaches were required. The Chart Room staff prepared a full analysis of bookings for the each service departure. The analysis sheets featured numerous...... Continued on next item.......

Continued from previous item..... squares with the pick-up points along the top edge and the set down points down the side. Totals for every required point to point were written in the appropriate square. Every column and every line was totalled and balanced then a grand total for the service obtained - all done mentally without the aid of a calculator. The total figures were transferred to the Traffic Sheet which was attached to all the chart sheets. The total showing the number of passengers to be collected from each pick-up point and the total showing the number to be set down at each setting down point were completed on the sheet. At busy times a more detailed breakdown of the numbers of passengers arriving on the connecting services of Associated Motorways, Royal Blue and Devon General was shown. The 'Charts' were carried by the Leading Driver/Senior Leading Driver or, at busier times, the Road Steward or Inspector who was overseeing the operation of the service coach and its duplicates. The actual numbers of passengers boarding/alighting and the times at the stops were recorded as the journey progressed. I created this reproduction showing just the passengers that travelled on the through coach south of Cheltenham, there were additional duplicates starting from Cheltenham. On the coach originating in Torquay there were 44 passengers on board when arriving at Cheltenham and 6 passengers were added there - it was a 49 seat coach! I suspect a child entitled to a seat unnecessarily sat with a parent giving us one extra passenger. Six photographs showing the coach (TDK 687J) starting out from Torquay and seen at different places on the journey up to Rochdale on the run this day may be seen beginning at: www.ipernity.com/doc/davidslater-spoddendale/33946981/in/album/690101

The timetable for the main route of Yelloway 'Devonian' service for the summer of 1971 which may be used to accompany the Traffic Sheets illustrated in the Yelloway Administrative Forms album. This service would later be assigned service number X5. The footnotes marked with an asterisk and a dagger may appear to be 'gobbledygook' seemingly stating the obvious if one reads the actual timetable columns ('available to passengers returning from ...... to ...... and points north thereof'). What the footnotes were actually meant to convey was the fact that these were conditions attached to the road service licence. The trips in question should only be used by passengers that had initially travelled south on their outward journey and were now making their return journey. (i.e. someone making their outward journey could not travel on the said journeys. However, they sometimes did just that!)

Mention was made previously in the narrative of the Traffic Sheet, about the 'Analysis Sheet' completed by the Chart Room staff. They totalled up all the passenger point to point numbers for the individual service departure to give a grand total. The figures were provided to the Traffic Office in order to provide the correct number of vehicles/seats as required along the line of route. All the figures were completed in pencil and the totalling done mentally without the aid of calculators. At quiet times these sheets were usually prepared the day before the service but for busy 'wakes weeks' weekends (when the figures could be one or two thousand per service departure!) they were prepared a couple or so weeks previously and updated along the way to ensure the correct number of duplicate coaches could be arranged. The grand total box at the bottom got rubbed out so much during that period that a hole would gradually appear in the paper requiring a piece of sticky label to be added to enable totalling to continue!

Every weekend throughout the summer months many extra duplicate coaches were required to cover the very popular 'Devonian' service. Hired operators would receive an instruction note with 'On hire to Yelloway' labels for display on the coach and ticket envelopes to hold the tickets collected from passengers. (This was a foolscap form, unfortunately the heading does not appear here nor a blank space at the footer). The reverse of the sheet showed the route taken from the Road Service Licence.

Every weekend throughout the summer months many extra duplicate coaches were required to cover the very popular 'Devonian' service. Hired operators would receive an instruction note with 'On hire to Yelloway' labels for display on the coach and ticket envelopes to hold the tickets collected from passengers. (This was a foolscap form, unfortunately the heading does not appear here nor a blank space at the footer). The reverse of the sheet showed the route taken from the Road Service Licence.

Yelloway hired numerous coaches to duplicate its services. All had to carry official hire labels, one in the front windscreen and one in the rear window.

When a driver collected passenger tickets on a journey they were placed in one of these ticket envelopes. The envelopes would end up in the Revenue Office for analysis. In the late 1960s/early 1970s all these tasks were handled manually. The clerks would open the packets and on specifically drawn sheets (created on the Gestetner duplicator) the tickets within the packet would be analysed and point to point passenger numbers recorded and totalled using appropriate cash values (full value if a single fare or 50% value of a return fare). The grand totals of passengers numbers and revenue for that one coach would therefore be visible. Over a period these numbers would go on to a larger analysis to establish the totals for the season. Nowadays a spreadsheet could do this - but they didn't exist back then!

A Yelloway vehicle fault report form. These were printed off in the General Office on a Gestetner duplicating machine as were many other forms including agency bulletins, booking analysis forms, ticket analysis forms, etc etc.

Until the dawn of on-line booking for coach journeys coach service operators like Yelloway had one or maybe more booking agents in just about every town. Such agents included bus station offices and travel agencies but there were scores of small businesses where tickets could be booked. Newsagents were perhaps amongst the most numerous. The agent held stocks of official tickets and would write out a ticket for the passenger who would pay the appropriate fare. Depending on the circumstances the agent might in the first instance have to make a phone call to the Chart Room at Rochdale to ascertain if seats were available otherwise the ticket would be issued and a confirmation copy would be sent in by post. When I first started in the Chart Room at Yelloway in January 1967 there was still one booking agent that didn’t possess a telephone and that agent had to complete a seat requisition form which was sent to Rochdale by post. Booking references were issued for the required journeys and the form returned to the agent also by post. The agent then issued the tickets accordingly. This was the method that had been employed for many years before telephones became commonplace and the agent in question was the last of a dying breed! Yelloway named their express service ticket ‘universal’ and they came in two formats of ticket books. The main offices and agents with a large throughput of ticket issue had ticket books with four tickets per page whereas smaller agents and road staff had ticket books with just one ticket per page. A ticket set comprised four leaves. Carbon paper sheets were placed between each of the leaves of the ticket set: 1) The Confirmation copy - The larger (upper) part was sent to the Chart Room and the smaller (lower) part was retained until the account statement was prepared and was then attached to the statement and sent with payment after the agent had deducted the commission due to them. 2) Outward journey ticket 3) Return journey ticket (this was retained in the ticket book if the passenger was making a one-way/single journey). 4) A copy retained in the ticket book The set shown in this series of images is a pre-decimal currency ticket showing Pounds (£), Shillings (s) and Pence (d). When decimal currency was introduced the cash columns changed to Pounds (£) and (new) Pence (p). When timetables began to be displayed using the 24 hour clock system the separate A.M and P.M boxes became one box.

Until the dawn of on-line booking for coach journeys coach service operators like Yelloway had one or maybe more booking agents in just about every town. Such agents included bus station offices and travel agencies but there were scores of small businesses where tickets could be booked. Newsagents were perhaps amongst the most numerous. The agent held stocks of official tickets and would write out a ticket for the passenger who would pay the appropriate fare. Depending on the circumstances the agent might in the first instance have to make a phone call to the Chart Room at Rochdale to ascertain if seats were available otherwise the ticket would be issued and a confirmation copy would be sent in by post. When I first started in the Chart Room at Yelloway in January 1967 there was still one booking agent that didn’t possess a telephone and that agent had to complete a seat requisition form which was sent to Rochdale by post. Booking references were issued for the required journeys and the form returned to the agent also by post. The agent then issued the tickets accordingly. This was the method that had been employed for many years before telephones became commonplace and the agent in question was the last of a dying breed! Yelloway named their express service ticket ‘universal’ and they came in two formats of ticket books. The main offices and agents with a large throughput of ticket issue had ticket books with four tickets per page whereas smaller agents and road staff had ticket books with just one ticket per page. A ticket set comprised four leaves. Carbon paper sheets were placed between each of the leaves of the ticket set: 1) The Confirmation copy - The larger (upper) part was sent to the Chart Room and the smaller (lower) part was retained until the account statement was prepared and was then attached to the statement and sent with payment after the agent had deducted the commission due to them. 2) Outward journey ticket 3) Return journey ticket (this was retained in the ticket book if the passenger was making a one-way/single journey). 4) A copy retained in the ticket book The set shown in this series of images is a pre-decimal currency ticket showing Pounds (£), Shillings (s) and Pence (d). When decimal currency was introduced the cash columns changed to Pounds (£) and (new) Pence (p). When timetables began to be displayed using the 24 hour clock system the separate A.M and P.M boxes became one box.

Left: The Creams (Lancashire) Limited excursion ticket – a simple square ticket a copy of which was retained by the issuing office. Creams was a subsidiary of Yelloway and the two companies held licences to operate excursions from different locations in South East Lancashire. However, this ticket was issued by Edgar Marshall based in Todmorden in West Yorkshire for two passengers taking a day excursion to Southport. Right: A Yelloway ticket valued at Five Shillings which was punched according to the journey and date of travel.

Photocopies of Yelloway tickets - the yellow colouring was applied by me to represent the paper colour. The lower tickets were black print on white card. Upper: Excursion ticket – a simple square ticket a copy of which was retained by the issuing office. Some operators issued two part tickets, one presented on the outward journey and a second ticket for the return journey. This prevented any fraudulent riders travelling. This example was issued by Lancaster's, the booing agent in Shaw, for one adult and one child on a football excursion to a Manchester City football match at Maine Road. Lower: ‘Block tickets’ – This was the term used by Yelloway to differentiate this style of ticket from ‘excursion tickets’ or multi-part carbon tickets used for single and period return journeys made on longer distance coach services. The ‘block ticket’ was widely used by Yelloway on its coastal services, football and dance hall services and comprised two portions, one for the outward journey and one for the return journey. When making a sale the pair were detached from the retaining block which carried the ticket number, the block was then used for accounting purposes. A ticket punch was used to punch out the date of travel.

A little while ago I was rather pleased to be the successful bidder on eBay to buy these three tickets printed for use on an unusual joint service operated by the Todmorden Joint Omnibus Committee (TJOC) and Yelloway Motor Services of Rochdale. The service, licenced as an ‘Express Carriage Service’, was to cater for fans of Burnley Football Club travelling to home matches from Stacksteads and Bacup. The operating partnership came about because TJOC was the operator of the regular stage carriage bus route between Bacup and Burnley and Yelloway held excursion licences from Stacksteads and Bacup. Yelloway agents sold the tickets which were recorded (charted) by the Yelloway Chart Room in Rochdale although vehicles would be provided by either operator. During my time working at Yelloway I recall telephoning the duty inspectors at TJOC to request them provide duplicate vehicles when required. The reverse side of all three of the tickets have identical printing as shown in the lowest of the examples above. This style of ticket was widely used by Yelloway on its coastal services and dance hall services. The term ‘block ticket’ was used by the company to differentiate them from ‘excursion tickets’ (a square piece of paper) and multi-part carbon tickets used for single and period return journeys made on regular services. The ‘block ticket’ comprised two portions, one for the outward journey and one for the return journey. When making a sale the pair were detached from the retaining block which carried the ticket number, the block was then used for accounting purposes. A ticket punch was used to punch out the date of travel. They are a nice souvenir to have from my days at Yelloway.