<div>Dear Mike,</div><div><br></div><div>To add to an excellent summary of bus regulations in Hong Kong, I have the following extracted from a past paper that I wrote on a similar issue:</div><div><br></div>1. Public Bus Services Ordinance (PBSO) requires a Certificate of Fitness (COF) examination with frame check when a bus reaches 17 years of age should the bus companies wish to extend the license for 1 more year, which is understood to be the maximum age permitted by Transport Department (TD) since 1998. The normal practice of the franchised bus companies is to retire their buses when they reach the age of 17 years as the cost of COF examination does not generally justify a 1-year life extension.<br> <br>2. Buses need to pass an annual examination before they can be re-licensed every year. At year 17, TD requires an inspection to be carried out on the structural frame condition of the bus frame (i.e. COF inspection), which requires extensive dismantling of the body parts.<br> <br>3. TD does not specify a maximum bus age for franchised buses and would normally allow re-licensing of buses if they pass the annual vehicle examinations (with COF inspection at age 17 and every three years onwards, i.e. at age 20 and 23 etc);<br> <br>4. By mutual agreement, TD and franchised bus operators decided that franchised buses should be subject to mandatory retirement when they reach the 18th anniversary of their date of 1st registration.<br> <br>5. For non-franchised buses (NFB), as long as they are able to pass the COF or COR there is no agreement on a mandatory age for retirement. However, the average age of NFBs are 6.7 years and they normally retire at about 10 - 12 years of age.<br> <br> 6. In his policy address the Chief Executive indicated that the Government would spend $3.2 billion to provide an incentive for the early replacement of 74,000 pre-Euro and Euro I diesel commercial vehicles with new vehicles meeting Euro IV exhaust emission standards. The Government would allow pre-Euro vehicle owners 18 months and Euro I vehicle owners three years to take up the offer.<div> <br></div><div>If you wish to discuss this further, contact me off-list.</div><div><br></div><div>Best Regards</div><div>Alok<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 7:38 PM, Peter Lutman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lutman@globalnet.co.uk">lutman@globalnet.co.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"> <div lang="EN-US" link="blue" bgcolor="#ffffff" vlink="purple"> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana">Dear Eric / Mike,</font></div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana"></font> </div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana">Depreciation is an internal matter for the owner / operator of the vehicle and can be approached in one of several ways. Some operators will use "straight line" depreciation writing down the initial cost in equal instalments over a number of years that they choose. Some coach operators will write down the amount over say 8 years and use the second-hand value towards the purchase price of a modern replacement. Others will use a percentage of the initial cost and the remaining balance each year to reflect the lower maintenance costs in the vehicle's early years and the higher cost as it grows older. (Even though depreciation is a non-cash charge used only for the books and maintenance is a real cost affecting cash flow, balancing these can be useful for accounting purposes). It is common in well managed companies to provide for not just historic depreciation, but also for replacement of the asset which will cost more as a result of inflation and imposition of higher standards by statutory authorities e.g. Euro IV or V engines.</font></div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana"></font> </div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana">When I ran a bus company in the UK, we wrote down minibuses over 4 years, midibuses over 8 years and heavyweight single and double deck buses over 14 years, but many lasted longer. London Transport got rid of hundreds of rear engined double deckers in the 1980s at far less than their written-down value (and wrote off the balance) becuase they had problems maintaining these vehicles. Currently they are disposing of 7 year old articulated buses in a similar way because the Mayor doesn't like them!</font></div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana"></font> </div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana">The operating life of a bus is quite different from the bookkeeping - there are thousands of fully depreciated UK buses well over 14 years old used on school contract or other low-mileage work which are fully depreciated. The statutory requirements are that every vehicle must be presented annually at a Government Test Centre where it must meet rigorous safety and environmental standards before being permitted to be used for a further 12 months. Spot checks may be made in the intervening period.</font></div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana"></font> </div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana">I seem to recall that Shanghai had a limit on the age of buses which could be used in that region, and I believe that it may have been as low as 7 years. While this may have been realistic for some of the rubbishy diesel buses which could shake themselves to bits, it was not sensible for the trolleybuses which can last for 25 or more years and did not seem to be applied to them.</font></div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana"></font> </div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana">Turning to Hong Kong, all of Citybus and New World First Bus vehicles are air-conditioned as are the majority of Kowloon Motor Bus's fleet which makes them even greater polluters. Citybus recognised the pollution problem (Causeway Bay being one of the worst-affected areas) and tried hard to persuade the authorities that some of the very high frequency routes should be converted to Trolleybus operation. They converted a double-deck diesel bus into a Trolleybus with a small auxiliary engine for off-wire and depot running and erected a test track in their parking depot near Aberdeen. Alas, the authorities did not want to know - even the proposals to demonstrate the benefits on Aberdeen local bus routes and / or the redevelopment of the former Kai Tak airport were rejected. The same attitude was applied when Hong Kong Tramways built 3 modern-looking electric trams with air-conditioning and sought permission to charge a supplementary fare just as the buses do. This was refused despite the fact that the trams are totally non-polluting at the point of operation (although the Lamma Island Power Plant may produce a little more) so the A/C units on the trams were removed.</font></div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana"></font> </div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana">Summing up, if a jurisdiction mandates that no PCV will be certified for further use after a certain age, that is one thing. It has nothing to do with the depreciation policies of the operator. Hong Kong only has itself to blame for refusing to try totally non-polluting Trolleybuses despite having a willing, progressive operator.</font></div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana"></font> </div> <div><font size="2" face="Arial">Peter Lutman FCILT<br><br>********************************************************************<br>This email and any attachments are confidential to the intended<br>recipient and may also be privileged. If you are not the intended<br>recipient please delete it from your system and notify the sender.<br>You should not copy it or use it for any purpose nor disclose or<br>distribute its contents to any other person.<br>********************************************************************</font></div> <div> </div> <div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div> <blockquote style="border-left:#000000 2px solid;padding-left:5px;padding-right:0px;margin-left:5px;margin-right:0px"> <div style="font:10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </div> <div style="font:10pt arial;background:#e4e4e4"><b>From:</b> <a title="eric.britton@ecoplan.org" href="mailto:eric.britton@ecoplan.org" target="_blank">Eric Britton</a> </div> <div style="font:10pt arial"><b>To:</b> <a title="Sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org" href="mailto:Sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org" target="_blank">Sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org</a> </div> <div style="font:10pt arial"><b>Cc:</b> <a title="mkilburn@civic-exchange.org" href="mailto:mkilburn@civic-exchange.org" target="_blank">mkilburn@civic-exchange.org</a> </div> <div style="font:10pt arial"><b>Sent:</b> Friday, July 31, 2009 8:09 AM</div> <div style="font:10pt arial"><b>Subject:</b> [sustran] Depreciation periods for buses in Singapore</div> <div><br></div> <div> <div> <div style="border-bottom:medium none;border-left:medium none;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:0in;padding-right:0in;border-top:#b5c4df 1pt solid;border-right:medium none;padding-top:3pt"> <p><b><span style="font-size:10pt">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10pt"> Mike Kilburn [mailto:<a href="mailto:mkilburn@civic-exchange.org" target="_blank">mkilburn@civic-exchange.org</a>] <br><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, July 28, 2009 11:39 AM<br><br></span></p></div></div> <p> </p> <p><span style="color:navy;font-size:10pt">Does anyone know over </span><span style="color:#00007f;font-size:10pt">how</span><span style="color:navy;font-size:10pt"> many years Singapore depreciates its bus fleet and whether this is mandated by law?<br><br>I am asking because Civic Exchange is conducting a study of franchised buses in Hong Kong, as a major contributor to roadside pollution, <br>and we are looking for examples of jurisdictions that place some sort of limit on the operating life of a bus.<br><br>In HK depreciation (ranging between 14 and 20 years) is a key consideration, but I would be very interested to hear of any control measures, <br>such as roadworthiness test requirements, environmental performance indicators, limits on engine type (e.g. Singapore has banned all pre Euro <br>and Euro 1 vehicles).<br><br>Many thanks <br><br>Mike Kilburn<br>Civic Exchange<br><br><br><br></span></p></div> <p> </p><hr> <p></p>-------------------------------------------------------- <br>To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit<br><a href="http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss" target="_blank">http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss</a><br><br>-------------------------------------------------------- <br>If you get sustran-discuss via YAHOOGROUPS, please go to <a href="http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss" target="_blank">http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss</a> to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership rights.<br><br>================================================================<br>SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South').<p></p></blockquote></div> <br>--------------------------------------------------------<br> To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit<br> <a href="http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss" target="_blank">http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss</a><br> <br> --------------------------------------------------------<br> If you get sustran-discuss via YAHOOGROUPS, please go to <a href="http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss" target="_blank">http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss</a> to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership rights.<br> <br> ================================================================<br> SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). <br></blockquote></div><br></div>