An Essex based coach hire company has been forced to close its doors after 42 years in business blaming rising fuel costs as one of the main contributors to its demise.

S & M Coaches of Benfleet in Essex undertook its last ever school run last week after four decades in the coach hire and transportation industry. Company owner Paul May described how the company’s last remaining source of income, a contract with the local council to provide school bus services in the area, was taken away when they lost the contract for the coming year.

Missing out on the school bus contract was the final blow for the established coach hire firm, as boss Paul May described how the firm had been struggling to make end meet as the rising cost of fuel was eating further and further into their profits. Despite the fact that the cost of fuel has risen dramatically, the coach operator described how they were still tendering the same prices for jobs as five years previously.

The coach hire firm was set up in 1969 by the current owner’s father and his friend Brian Smith. Formerly known as Castle Point Bus Company, the business once operated some 26 coaches however its fleet has since dwindled to just seven double-decker buses as the firm concentrated to school bus contracts rather than private hire services.

S & M Coaches owner is calling for government intervention into the issue of spiralling fuel costs as the rising cost of diesel is having a detrimental effect on many transport companies in the UK, pushing a number of them out of business.