It returned w ith

a venge

ance.  I’m not going to write too much about the snow itself and how it affects our operations.

  I won’t bleat on about it snowing while my two operational managers were away on the mainland on a training course!  I won’t talk about coping with snow as a bus company simply because it’s something we know how to do now.

  Each time we will learn new lessons, and get better at it.

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The problem earlier in 2010 was that we hadn’t had any for so many years that the Island had pretty much forgotten about how to prepare for it and deal with it.

  That huge dump of snow in January reminded us that we all had to be on our guard and to make better plans!

This time the fall in the evening made life easier, with only one bus stuck on the road.

MoneyGram location in ETHIOPIA Western union location ALBANIA agent location   Its rescue was made so much easier simply by us having snow chains not for our buses, but for our support vehicles and the car.  In a single pre emptive action we were so much better equipped to deal with the snow.

The IW Council had clearly reassessed their snow plan after January, and they too were much better prepared.

  The principal roads between the big towns and the ferry terminals were quickly cleared, and were kept clear.

  That made getting buses out on the road much easier for us on main priority routes. Purchase Doxycycline

Our team from head office in Newport has been doing a sterling job of getting up at 4am whenever the forecast has How does viagra work been for snow or very low temperatures, often venturing out at that ungodly hour to check on road conditions, especially on the step hills and known ice traps. Cialis Online

There were some magnificent acts of public service performed over the three days in which the Island struggled to function through the snow.  In Ventnor a whole host of people came out to help those who were stuck.  Locals spread grit by wheelbarrow, the PCSOs salted roads themselves, and residents brought out welcome cups of tea for delayed and stuck staff, and their rescuers.

A significant number of our drivers made it to work even though conditions were very difficult.  In the West Wight some tried all routes East until they found a hill that

they could climb in their cars.  Some walked miles to get

to work, even setting out from Ryde at 2am to make sure they were at work in time for the start of the day in Newport.

Order Viagra  Public spirited drivers of large vehicles and 4×4s soon stopped and offered them lifts.

  From 5am staff started to get to work in Newport.  While we waited for the Council’s new gritters and snow ploughs to clear the first routes, staff willingly picked up shovels and brooms and cleared Newport Bus Station of accumulated snow.

  In Ryde staff stuck there did the same. SWIFT Codes for all Banks in Turkey

Maybe the Big Society is just buried under

the Nanny State, with people just waiting to break through and join in!

September was a significant month for us – one we won’t forget for some time. Probably the biggest upheaval was the introduction of our new contract with IW Council Order Viagrato take all mainstream students to school.

This needs 44 buses each day, 21 more than we used to run for dedicated school journeys.

We have two separate operating ‘units’ based at Newport.

Our ‘bus unit’ run the green buses on our busy public routes and the Island Breezer open Tops and Road Trains.

The school vehicles and our private hire coaches are run by a separate small team in our ‘coach unit’. They’ve done a remarkable job in getting all our school buses and coaches up and running in a short timescale.

Life hasn’t been easy, with new staff to train and familiarize, and newly arrived vehicles – both take time to settle in!

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All has run remarkably smoothly, although we have taken a huge amount of grief from parents, and indeed some schools.

Our new contract is much different from the old arrangement to take students Purchase Doxycyclineto school for the Council. The grief has generally fallen into three areas:

1. Times of school buses
2.

Not being able to use public buses instead
3. Not being able to pay to use school buses

In reality none of these issues are ours.

MoneyGram location in ETHIOPIA The new contract sees the Council set the routes and times, and the contract provides for a private ‘closed’ school vehicle with students allocated to a specific route and vehicle.

Parents and schools now tend to understand this – we’ve spent many weeks telling them!

At the moment we’re still working through changes and tweaks to the times of routes, and adding extra bits onto routes, working with the Council to cover all their needs as efficiently as possible.

Many of the 44 buses serve two schools, one after another, some even manage three. This keeps down the number of vehicles required, and in turn

the cost of school transport. MoneyGram JAPAN agent location

The ‘coach unit’ staff is refreshing their memories of the intricacies of European coach requirements too.

Cialis Online We run some big contracts for school holiday providers, including the Kingswood Centre at Bembridge, bringing students in from across Southern England, including airports and ports. We also provide coaches for European holidays for school groups though, and so coaches from our ‘Moss Motors’ fleet can now be spotted plying their trade up and down

the motorway network in the UK, but also across the roads of cont

inental Europe.

Back on the Island, we’re close to agreeing a change to the timetable for route 37 with IW Council, which in turn will also enable us to make

route 8 more reliable. How does viagra work Route 8 is the problem child of Mr SV. No matter how we alter the route, or provide more time for it, it just seems to disappear into the East Wight version of the ‘Bermuda Triangle’, with buses inexplicably entering a different time zone before appearing back in Ryde later than scheduled. Road works seem to have besieged the route since it was created pretty much without interruption, but is also affected by holiday hold-ups. This summer new hold-ups have emerged, Morrissons roundabout at Lake being a new one that we haven’t suffered in previous summers. Anyway, to put it bluntly,i’ve had enough of the complaints.

While much of the problem has been out of our control, and the route can run to time when it gets a chance, I just can’t face upsetting the locals any more – and i’ve got the utmost sympathy for

them.

Western union location ALBANIA agent location So, the plan is that from early January, we’ll be putting more time into the route. I’m dedicating the extra time to Mrs Mary Ward of Bembridge, for continually nagging me about it (especially as she’s been sympathetic to us too!) – I can’t stand it any more Mary, so once you’re knee has recovered, we’ll look forward to having you back on a hopefully more reliable route 8 – get well soon!

Last night was the awards evening for the Hants and IW Sustainable Business Awards.  We pitched up to hear how we’d done in the large business category.  The judging process was detailed and involved visits from their auditors, lots of questions,

and supplying evidence of our work.

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We were delighted to win the category, but even more surprised to be crowned as the Sustainable Business of the Year 2010 in Hampshire and the . Isle of Wight.

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The awards are run by the Sustainable Business network, who support business to become more sustainable, economically, socially and environmentally. 

Their website explains all…

http://www.the-sbp.co.uk/Home.aspx?ChannelID=26&PostingID=155

For the past six months we’ve been working with IW Council to try and reach a single, overall agreement that covers all the contracts and schemes

that we have.

The aim has been to put all our activities togetehr, bring stability to bus services as a result, and to achieve savings from that stability and the economies of scale that it brings.

The great news is that we’ve done it!

Last week we formally signed off a new agreement which cuts through the wrangling over concessionary fares, and as a result the ongoing toing and froing of all our other contracts as they come up for renewal.

We’re confident that with this new agreement in place we can work much closer together to promote and encourage bus services, and to deliver new initiatives and improvements, without having to worry about the next negotiation

we need to have or tender

we need to price.

As a result we have ben able to protect non-profitable bus services, offer a ground breaking hybrid community tranport package for areas across the Island to retain socially important buses, and to increase commercial bus services on our main network.

What’s more, we’ve managed to save the Council taxpayer money in

to the bargain. Purchase Doxycycline MoneyGram location in ETHIOPIA

This is the press release that was released last week…

At a time when bus services across the country are being drastically cut, an innovative partnership between the Isle of Wight Council and bus company

Southern Vectis is set to secure services on the Island and save the council money.

Southern Vectis and council officers have been working on the partnership idea for around six months, and have now agreed terms for a new ’single contract’ between the two organisations, securing bus services and delivering extra value in what would otherwise be very difficult times.

Underpinning the new contract, which is for an initial one year period, is an agreement on the level of payments to be made for concessionary travel, which delivers certainty for both organisations and provides enough stability to reach an agreement on a host of other services. The agreement also releases both from the ongoing costs, risks and distractions of the appeal process, and has led to Southern Vectis waiving all its outstanding appeals against a variety of schemes stretching back some years.

The other main elements of the new partnership are as follows:-
Southern Vectis will continue to operate all the non commercially viable Southern Vectis services that the council currently funds, but will do so for over £150,000 a year less than at present, operating journeys on some currently funded routes without any financial support.
In addition, the stability of

the concessionary fares agreement has enabled the bus company to increase bus services from 17 April. Order Viagra It will double the frequency of its Route 7 to the West Wight to half hourly, extend Route 2 from Sandown through to Ryde, returning services to Oakfield, and introduce night buses to the West Wight and East Cowes on Friday and Saturday nights.

Southern Vectis will also take over the remaining Wightbus school operations that carry students to the Island’s two special needs schools, St George’s and Medina House, at a preferential rate.
In an innovative move, local communities will be able to partner with Southern Vectis and IW Council to run voluntary community bus routes to replace the current Wightbus local bus services. Since Southern Vectis floated the idea earlier this year, a significant number of local councils have come forward to deliver these schemes.

The latest development builds upon that, with Southern Vectis providing vehicles and driver training, and the IW Council covering running costs removing any financial risk from the voluntary sector. MoneyGram JAPAN agent location The scheme is the first in the country, bringing together the resources and buses of a commercial bus opera

tor with local community volunteer drivers to deliver services otherwise unviable to local communities.
Southern Vectis will also continue to provide all young people aged between 5 - 18 with half-price fares on all single, Rover and Freedom tickets (excluding Nightrider) on its public bus network during the c SWIFT Codes for all Banks in Turkey ontract.
Marc Morgan Huws, Divisional Director for Sou thern Vectis welcomed How does viagra work the partnership. Western union location ALBANIA agent location “This agreement is incredibly important. We live in a time when we h Cialis Onlineave to work together, to share resources, be super efficient, and to be innovative

and imaginative. We have worked toge ther for

the past six months, pragmatically and positively discussing every aspect of our relationship.

“The result is an agreement that delivers the very best services as efficiently as possible for bus users on the Island.”
Cllr Edward Giles, IW Council cabinet member responsible for transport, said: “We have entered a new era in our relationship with the local bus company.

Elsewhere across the country the outlook for rural bus networks are looking bleak, but here we have put together to deliver a range of initiatives and services which are sustainable for the future.
The new announcement comes after Southern Vectis agreed to provide visi

tor information centres across the Island following

the closure of

the Tourist Information Centres.

Cllr Giles added: “This new agreement is a very clear demonstration that when public and private sector organisations put their minds to it, they can work together to deliver a combination of innovative solutions at a lower cost. As everyone knows these are difficult economic times so we are particularly pleased to reach this deal that maintains and enhances bus services, helps protect jobs and, crucially, provides excellent value for money.”

I’ll try and blog individually about each element of the agreement in detail over the next few weeks!

Some months ago IW Council announced that they were likely to close down their ‘Tourist Information Centres’ in Ryde, Newport, Cowes, Yarmouth, Sandown and Shanklin.

It occured to us that there is a great cross over between travel information and visitor information. From a visitors’ point of view, they could benefit from ‘integrated’ (that hallowed ‘i’ word!) information on where to go and how to get there. From our business point of view, people are more likely to travel somewhere if they know exactly where, when and how our buses run there and back, how much it costs, and how long it takes.

So, there has to be good sense from us stepping in to provide this service.

The Tourist Information Centres had become physical gift and book shops, with just a minority of their floor/wall space utilised for leaflets on what to do. That’s understandable, with the Council clearly trying over a number of years to offset

the cost of the Centres by selling things that visitors may want. Similarly they sold National Express tickets for Islanders going away, and a host of other tickets.

Sometimes it’s good to step back and start again, and our approach has been based on that principle. We’re aiming to give visitors an information service, rather than the add ons that were in the Centres.

IW Council’s officers have been very helpful and understand the need to start afresh and redefine the role of the service. We found out that around 40% of Centre customers were in fact not visitors at all but Islanders.

We also found out that around 80% of visits were made to the Yarmouth, Newport and Ryde centres, not those in Shanklin, Sandown and Cowes.

The list of ‘frequently asked queations’ passed on to us shows that the majority of enquiries are actually for travel information.

So, we think we’ve got the ‘integration’ right, and that getting back to visitor information is the right focus.

When IW Council announced the possible closures, it occured to us that we had a large travel information centre of our own in Newport B

us Station, and that this could be the impetus to re-open the former office in Ryde Bus Station. We forgot we had an office in Yarmouth!

So there began our initial offer to the Council - to provide a replacement facility in Ryde and Newport. Purchase Doxycycline

As discussions went on, we remembered that haing a member of staff on hand in both Sandown and Shanklin in summers gone by had been a useful service to customers. It soon became clear that for little extra resource, we could use staff already in Newport all day, and between schools in Ryde and Yarmouth, but also in Shanklin, Sandown and Cowes.

Getting bus information and ideas of what to do and where to go to our customers is good for business, so we’ve been working towards this now for a couple of months.

We are clear that to do the job properly, we need

to provide a comprehensive visi

tor information service, not just for bus users but for everyone, and that is what we are committed to. MoneyGram location in ETHIOPIA

The project has been hectic to say the least. We have committed ourselves to roll it out in stages - it’s just too much to have it all in place from the start given the small lead

in time available to us.

The whole project has fired new life into our Travel Shop in Newport Bus Station. For a while now we’ve been pondering what to do with it as it’s become shabby and hasn’t really been fit for purpose. The transformation into a ‘Visitor Information Point’ and Waiting Room has given us a focus and enthusiasm, and the results are quite stunning. Out has gone the green and brown, and the huge mostly vacant counter. Fresh and bright in white and blue, we have a new information desk, lots of proper poster and leaflet displays, a new dark wood flooring, sofas and BBC News 24. The transformation is staggering.

We’ve carried the theme through to Ryde, in the re-opened office there, which is close to completion, but still requires the new floor and the sofa…all in hand! We’ve also been moved to brigten up the Bus Station itself now that we have leased it from Islandline, and works will continue for a month or so to complete our plans. Cialis Online

Yarmouth is a less ambitious project, but mainly because the canvass is so small.

Nevertheless, we’re following the same principles here.

We’ve still got work to do in all three of these locations, but they are at least ready to open, and will only get better.

Our staff have bright new uniforms to make them visible and identify them, and as well as the three physical locations, we’re also deploying staff in Shanklin Bus Station, Shanklin High Street and Cowes Pontoon. Western union location ALBANIA agent location

The next phase is the roll our of three ‘mobile’ Visitor Information Points. In these three locations, our converted little buses, complete in our new blue and white ‘Visitor Information’ livery will be coming soon. the first one is fin

ished externally and is being fitted out inetrnally over the next couple of weeks. MoneyGram JAPAN agent location The second

is in our pa SWIFT Codes for all Banks in Turkey intshop now and should follow not far behind. Hopefully the third one will only be a few weeks behind the second. Order Viagra

We’re planning on taking in feedback and experience from the start, and will be building on this as the season goes on.

Getting the project up and running has been a big, big task for our Commercial Team, and they’ve produced great results that they can and we collectively are proud of. It’s great to see the team at SV rising to the challenge and showing just what we can deliver, both through partnerships, physically, and in terms of innovation.

The Big Society in action! How does viagra work

So much has happened in the last few months.

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