Yellow Bus Services - The Post-war Period

The Post-war Period

At the end of the war, the buses were quickly repainted in the cream livery (one having escaped being repainted in grey) and the utility buses upgraded. Loadings were heavy in the immediate post-war period but, in the 1950s, there was a general decline in use of buses, which had its effect on YBS. An increasing number of services were given dispensation for single person operation. Sunday morning services on the Farnham route were withdrawn in 1951. Sydney Hayter died suddenly at the age of 58 in November that year. In 1953 Yellow Bus Services was incorporated as a limited company, with Hayter's widow as the principal director. The South-east Traffic Commissioners granted an application for Yellow Bus Services Ltd to take over the service of buses previously run in the name of Yellow Bus Services by the late Mr Sydney Hayter. By then, only the Farnham and Camberley services remained, together with excursions from the Stoughton base. A&D were pressing YBS to sell their services to them and, in 1954 YBS surrendered their licence to run the Camberley service, allowing A&D a monopoly on that route. In an attempt to increase revenue by diversification YBS built a petrol station on their premises in 1955; this aspect of business expanded over the following years to include car repairs, tyre, battery and accessory sales, together with a paraffin delivery service. The service station was staffed by off-duty drivers and other staff displaced from bus services by the reduction in route miles.