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
History of Torquay by the future Emperor Vespasian during the invasion of Britain in 43 considering his extensive actions in the South West, during which according to the Roman historian Suetonius: "He reduced to subjection two powerful nations, more than twenty towns, and the island of Vectis". No evidence has been found of Roman settlement in the area but Roman finds have been uncovered in nearby Totnes, Newton Abbot and on Berry Head on the opposite side of Torbay existed an Iron Age fort and a cache of Roman coins was discovered in 1730, including among others a coin of the Emperor Claudius