A most curious and head turning name for a bus company.
Quite an interesting background existed to the operation. All vehicles are owned by Nottinghamshire And Derbyshire Traction Co. Ltd, which in turn is part of Wellglade, limited who own Trent and Barton buses and also Kinchbus. The Blue Apple operation began on services running to and from the University of Derby and free buses to and from two local superstores. This followed a spell when Skills coaches of Nottingham were franchised by Trent to operate the services. This in turn was due to an overdue industrial dispute and overtime ban by Trent drivers in 1997.
And so Blue Apple was conceived as a means to move all the so called ‘non quality’ routes away from Trent and Barton. A franchise arrangement was given to Derby Integrated Transport Services, themselves based at Trent’s Derby depot. DITS came about when Derby Community Transport (part of Derbyshire County Council in a round about way) moved on to service work as well as their ‘dial a ride’ services for the disabled. A number of vehicles were acquired from Trent and Barton of which two Leyland Nationals survived until April 2000 – TTO 163R (formerly PRR 444R) and PRR 445R both 11351A/2R variants and Ex Trent 444 and 445. Both vehicles have now been withdrawn from service meaning DITS no longer owned any PSVs.
DITS recruited, with relative ease, drivers for the Blue Apple operation. A very favourable ‘no hassle’ atmosphere prevailing quite far removed from the daily aggravation over coat hanger smiles and constant battles for shift changes or holidays as is the norm in virtually any other large bus company.
The bulk of the Blue Apple fleet consisted of very well maintained Leyland Nationals painted in an apple green and blue colour scheme. In addition to this there were five Leyland Olympians and two Mercedes minibuses which came from Kinchbus.
Changes to the franchise agreement saw some vehicles renumbered by the addition of 1000 to their numbers. A major deal was reached with the University of Derby for the start of the September 1999 term. A batch of Dennis Lance was painted into their livery and branded ‘Unibus’ as well as Olympian 723. The University absorbed the High Peak College in Buxton and at least four DAF engined Leyland Nationals also received this livery. As a result of this several of the first batch of Blue Apple Nationals were taken out of service.
The next major change came about when D.I.T.S. called in the receivers during the last week of July 2000 resulting in the loss of over 40 jobs.
Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Traction (part of Wellglade Ltd - the holding company for Trent, Barton and Kinchbus) own all the vehicles in the Blue Apple fleet assumed responsibility for the provision of drivers involved in the operation, previously D.I.T.S. had done this acting as a form of agency.
The Blue Apple name was eventually dropped in favour of 'Notts & Derby' along with a revised livery. Suitable fleetnames began to appear on vehicles during November 2000. Also vehicles which had been renumbered into the 1xxx series have reverted to their original numbers by removing the leading '1'
By at least mid 2003 the remaining Leyland National vehicles were no more.
The following pages deal with the 'heyday' of Blue Apple when the fleet was largely made up of Leyland Nationals. Now that the name has been dropped the likes of Volvo B10B, more Dennis Lance and even a Dennis Dart have appeared in the fleet.