Southern Vectis Poole, and Solent Blue Line in Southampton. The new operations used older Southern Vectis buses and second-hand double-deckers. Southern Vectis also moved into other business areas on the isle of Wight. The company bought a self-drive van hire firm. It also bought two Ford Granada taxis, which it ran from the Cowes pontoon and began taxibus services which continued till 1989. In 2003, Southern Vectis started "The Pink Peril", a pink bus designed to take students to and from school. The vehicle, an Iveco minibus (fleet number 283) was the oldest in the fleet. In July 2005, Southern Vectis and
Southern Vectis scrap their car. Southern Vectis announced that five vehicles had been scrapped within the first fortnight of the promotion and it had received around 6,000 enquiries. As a result of deregulation in 1986, several competitors started and others increased existing services. These competitors included Gange's Minicoaches, Grand Hotel Tours, Island Travel (Cooke's Coaches of Porchfield), Moss Motor Tours, Seaview Services' RedLynx and Wiltax of Shanklin. Island Travel and Gange's Minicoaches established routes between Cowes and Ryde. The newly privatised Southern Vectis responded with a number of new business practices. These practices raised the interest of the Office of Fair Trading