So, where does Mr SV spend his time out of the office. Many probably think it’s spent eating volavones and sipping wine at posh dos!!! ,.. but the reality is that an afwul lot of time is spent working with, alongside, and on a range of organisations across the Island. No-one would believe just how many committees, groups and boards there are that all have a part to play in shaping the community, and therefore the opportunities and indeed threats, to running a successful bus business. One of Mr SV’s jobs is to be well connected to all those places, people, organisations and groups who make those decisions.

So yesterday was the ‘Freight Forum’ of the Island’s Quality Transport Partnership. So why would SV be interested in a freight forum? Well, in specific terms, it puts us alongside the other operators of big vehicles on the Island, allowing us to discuss common interests, and to come together to lobby the Council in particular, and to give them our joint views when they need to consult. The three subjects on the agenda today were…Trees and Hedges…Width Restricted Roads…and…Newport Traffic. All three are subjects that affect us all.

On Trees and Hedges we have all been suffering damage to our vehicles from uncut trees and hedges. It’s a big issue for us because unlike lorries, our loads consist of people! We simply can’t have our buses smashing into tree branches. This is an issue that the Forum raised months ago, and after concerted pressure, IW Council has come up trumps. They’ve been serving legal notices left right and centre, and starting to get trees and hedges drastically cut back. The downside is that it’s after many years of neglect, so it’s taking a while to get through all of even the worse affected areas. But we’re reasonably happy, and for our part we’ve jointly funded a public information campaign about the need for people to keep the roads clear of growth from their gardens and fields. We’ve been pretty forceful ourselves, but having the freight operators alongside us has definatly helped.

Width restrictions are more of a problem to trucks, as many restrictions still allow buses on passenger routes through. However, buses running between routes and to start and finish can’t use restricted roads, and our coaches carrying private parties can’t either, so we do all have a shared interest in the matter. Today the Council were asking us if we thought any areas should be reviewed. The problem is that these restrictions are incremenal, with odd closures adding together to make whole areas difficult to access, and forcing big vehicles through other roads, where they can be even more intrusive. We had a good day here too, persuading the Council (not that they needed persuadng really!) that instead of reviewing the existing ones, they should start at the other end of the scale…designate a set of generally suitable roads across the Island as suitable for heavy vehicles, focus spending on improvements needed for those roads, then sign and maintain them for big vehicles.

The really interesting subject though was traffic in Newport. We have been chiping away for coming on for a year now about the need to do something that fundamentally addresses the problem of congestion in Newport. We’ve been doing that in all sorts of places all the time. We’ve been talking about the need for a whole package of measures to reduce (not eliminate - just reduce) car traffic in Newport. We think it’s about using a whole host of measures, from pricing car parking appropriatley, not over providing parking spaces, provding more short rather than all day spaces, getting commuters out of town, and looking to park and ride on the edges of the town to displace particularly commuters to. It’s crazy that the town is full of cars belonging to employees of businesses, stopping their customers from being able to get to them!

Anyway, the really good news is that instead of arguing about the need for these measures, the freight operators and others present were arguing about which measures should be adopted first, and how quickly it should be done! It’s amazing to think that freight operators, the Quality Transport Partnership, and even Councillors looking into these issues have come to agree with our ideas. Maybe the Island really is on the brink of adopting the policies that successful towns and cities have embraced and proven across the Country, creating attractive, popular, and more vibrant and economically successful town centres, where the motor car is no longer allowed a free for all that chokes the streets and businesses?

Time will tell!

The time used to be when we were dependent upon fare paying passengers for the vast majority of our revenue.  We worked in a world where to attract new customers, and replace those who passed away from a generation that didn’t ‘do’ cars, we had to market and sell to people who would make a judgement on value for money to travel with us.  With the high costs of running buses, it was a difficult balance to reach, and indeed for decades it wasn’t reached, with passenger numbers declining year on year.  The biggest part of the business model was how to manage decline, with near empty buses running round, paid for sometimes by local Councils when they didn’t pay their way, with more and more routes and little used journeys being cut.

Nothing could be more different now.  Two and a half years ago the government introcuced free travel for local over 60s, and in April this year, for all English residents across all of England.  Each year since we’ve seen growth of 15% in our passenger numbers, with the three years seeing a huge increase of around 45% in customer journeys.  The benefits are significant…fewer cars on the roads, more access to services and attractions for the over 60s..and beyond the immediate benefits,…better services for many of those who aren’t over 60 as we need to run more and more buses…in turn making buses more attractive to new fare paying customers.

The down side is that we only get around half the fare for each journey made under the free travel scheme.  The idea is that it is meant to be using up empty seats, so doesn’t cost us much.  The reality is that you couldn’t have got 45% more customers on our previous service levels, especially at peak times.  There’s a real danger that the fares simply don’t keep up with the extra costs of running many more buses.

Last month was a significant one for us…we actually carried more passengers using free travel than we did full fare payers!

This week we started training new recruits again.  Four to be precise.  Our requirement for drivers is considerably higher in Summer than Winter, so we aim to be fully staffed at Easter, then drift down over the Summer and through the Winter.  Nevertheless, we need to start now if we are to feed enough trainees back into the system in time for Easter 2009, so our first four arrived on Monday.  No big deal maybe, but to us getting the right recruits is a critical part of our service delivery.  New people are great - we get to choose them and indoctorinate (sorry, train!) them in our own ways of thinking - the ones that say that customer service is paramount.

In past times it was more about getting them in than necessarily choosing them carefully.  Too often they would be herded in, a fair few didn’t turn up, some were clearly not interested or up to it, and a fair few left after the training.  Finally, we’d spend months (even years) moving on those we didn’t think shared our concept of good customer service.  The result would be lots of expensive training, combined with a shortage of drivers, and lots of management time wasted which could be better spent on improving our delivery.  What’s more it simply demotivated our good existing staff.

We’ve now got a process we are very proud of, not least because it delivers excellent staff at the end of it, fewer complaints, more compliments, and much reduced staff turnover.  So what does someone have to do to get a driving job with us…

There’s actually a bit before that.  We have just appointed five trainees from fifty applicants, so clearly we have no shortage of willing recruits.  But that doesn’t stop us advertising in interesting ways and different places.  Attracting a wider, more diverse group of people to consider working for us is a very important aim.  Of the five we have just selected from the fifty, four are female, and it’s really good to see that we are now attracting good female staff.

So, first stage is a series of adverts, web based, radio, and printed media.  We also get a lot of unsolicited calls to us, and word of mouth in the community brings in applications from people who know others who work for us.

Our first sifting exercise is to ask all interested applicants for a CV and covering letter.  Some clearly can’t be bothered to provide what we ask for, so that’s a good few gone already!  CVs are great indicators.  We like them because unlike an application form that tells the applicant what to tell us, a CV makes someone sell themselves…or not.  If the CV isn’t positive then is the applicant?  If they can’t be bothered to get someone to check their spelling, then what can they be bothered about?   One critical thing we look for is direct customer experience.  Finally, we have a look at the references…then ignore them and look at previous employers who haven’t been selected as references.  Between our management team we know someone at many Island employers, so a call to a previous employer is easy!  If they’ve worked for a bus company on the mainland, then that’s easy too - we have a manager who can get any bus company to spill the beans!

So, by this stage about two thirds of them are receiving a polite but clear ‘no thank-you’!

The other third are receiving an invitation to one of our ‘Recruitment Days’, along with a list of direct and indirect instructions, and a day ticket specifically to use our services.  Recruitment Day starts with a presentation from Managers and the Trade Union Secretary about the job.  We like to call it the good, the bad and the ugly.  We labour on the bad and the ugly though.  The whole point is that recruitment is a two way process.  Just as we want to be sure someone is right for us, they need to be sure we are right for them.  So we make a point about telling them about all the down sides of the job.  If they leave (and we encourage them to do so regularly) then we’ve succeeded - they’ve decided they don’t want to be a driver with us before we’ve both wasted time and valuable training slots.

Next comes question time, when we answer all thsoe questions about working late, early, weekends, etc.  Another opportunity to emphasis what anyone joining us is letting theselves in for.

Then comes the exam!  Recruits need literacy and numeracy skills to pass the revised driving test and CPC qualification they will need, so we test those through the exam paper…Lots of adding fares and working out change, converting times between 12 and 24 hour clock and reading timetables…a good dose of questions from the theory test…questions requiring paragraphs about themselves - all those horrible questions about strengths and weaknesses and the like….then a bit we really enjoy, a series of questions asking them about the services they used with their day ticket.  This is a great one because there are always a couple of people who didn’t bother to travel (often existing bus drivers from the mainland) that’s a couple more leaving!

After the written exam, it’s out in a big van or pick-up for a driving assesment.  We aren’t looking for next year’s ‘Bus Driver of the Year’, but for an aptitude to be trained.  Customer service and attitude are the real qualities we look for, we’re just checking their driving is good enough that they can be trained appropriately if they meet all our other requirements.

Existing bus drivers sweat at this point, because we tell them about our requirement from them - a return visit is they are selected, for a full mock driving test with our delegated examiner, corrective tuition if needed, then a further mock test which has to meet pass standard.

The final part of the day is a series of short interviews with a team of three managers.  They have a good nose for good trainees, so each has a veto they can exercise - that’s worse than the X factor judging panel!

There’s more by now though, as we’ve usually spent about 6 hours in the company of the applicants who make it this far.  We’ve looked at their dress sense and presentation, seen how they interact and communicate with us and the other applicants, and we’ve seen how much interest and initiative they’ve shown us. 

By this stage we know who we’ll be writing to offering a medical, and if that’s okay, a trainee position.  Four were offered start dates this week - all four turned up, enthusiastic, smartly dressed and punctual - we’re looking good!

If you know about the new bus industry training requirements that came into effect a week ago, you may think I am about to write a blog bemoaning the need to train our staff on an ongoing basis, at our substantial cost, and at the behest of the Department for Transport…but i’m not!

Next week we start to put 2 or 3 drivers a week through the new ‘Certificate of Professional Competence’ course which requires a qualification which all of them must achieve within the next five years, and maintain every five years into the future.  The course takes a full week, and is undertaken at our regional training centre in Eastleigh.  It covers all the things that a professional bus driver should be trainind in - not just driving the bus, but safety, customer care, and a whole host of associated matters.

A fair part of what is covered is already part of our own Southern Vectis training programme.  We are about half way through our drivers.  This course is delivered by our own management and training team at Southern Vectis, and takes drivers out for three days.  It includes a customer focus, looking at customer expectations, standards of care, how to resolve problems with unhappy customers, and dealing with difficult situations.  It also has a section about our own products and ticket types, and a full day of ‘defensive driver training.  The feedback to it from the half of the driving team who have already been through it has been superb, and is a good measure of it’s worth.  The course runs on a 18-24 months cycle - once everyone has attended, we start all over again, having refined it and added more to it.

In the last week the Bus (PCV to be technical) driving test has also become more difficult to pass, with a new module added to reflect the CPC training standards mentioned above.  It certainly raises the threshold for training staff to gain their licence now, and will increase the amount of time it takes to get a new trainee out ‘on the road’ for us.

The other training that we start next week is a rapid burst on ‘Sympathetic Driving Skills’ training.  This requires us to train all our driving staff to drive smoothly, progressively and economically.  Our sister company Oxford Bus Co have trialled this programme and saved about 13% in fuel.  With the price of fuel as it is, and the rightful concern for our carbon footprint, this is a very significant programme.  This is a one-off in that we’ll be getting everyone trained as quickly as we can, but then building this into our own three day course mentioned above, so that it is continuous training.  The internal three day course is actually on hold while we get everyone through the sympathetic driving course, at a rate of about 15 a week, so it will flow on quite nicely.

So why aren’t we moaning….

Setting higher standards for our industry is good news.  For companies like ours who invest in and are committed to training anyway, because we know it is the right thing to do, it puts us on a level playing field.  Any competitors have to invest properly in training too.  The CPC qualification sets a national standard for training which is a good foundation, albeit one which we willl build on and exceed.

…and our industry is too often under sold and under valued.  We spend a lot of time and energy recruiting the right people, training them to high standards, and they form a critical part of the package of things that make a good service - along with high frequency, good information provision, and modern new vehicles.  Raising the national image of buses is important if we are to continue to attract more people to our network of services.

Today dawned miserably.  Although the sun came out later, our day remained miserable and grey.  Today was one of those days that are sent to test us.

8am this morning, and the driver of one of our spanking new £170,000 Scania double deckers calls in from Shanklin to tell us he has a diesel leak - and a big one at that.  We contact the relevant authorities to let them know - diesel is very slippery stuff.  The news isn’t good.  He’s come from Brading and is at Shanklin, and reports are coming in of chaos around Brading as cars and bikes lose control on slippery roads.  Police are on the scene and have closed roads between Brading and Shanklin.  Highways are pulling out the stops to get roads sanded and cleaned.  Brading to Shanklin is a long way though!  Police tell us that they don’t think our diesel spill is the main cause though, there’s a lorry at Brading that has lost all it’s fuel in the road.  By now our engineers are in Shanklin, trying to stop the flow and contain what is there, and identify the problem - disloged fuel pipe, which appears to have been hit by something.  The Eastern part of the Island is at standstill.

It turns out a lorry had lost the entire contents of it’s diesel tank in Brading itself, and that there have been numerous accidents.

Our investigations take us back to roadworks in Brading where it appears that a metal sheet covering a hole is unsecured and has flicked up under first the bus, then the lorry as they have passed over it, damaging the lorry’s tank, and the bus’ fuel pipe.

We now have a brand new bus in Shanklin, surrounded by diesel, more still in it coming out, and needing towing back to Newport for assessment and repair - a few days work by the looks of it.  Brading is completely closed, as are roads as far as Shanklin.

Our next problem is that routes 2,3,8,10 and 22 are now unable to operate through the closed roads, and the alternatives, by now full of diverted cars and trucks aren’t really viable for us to divert through.  The 10 is only going as far as Bembridge, and the 8 is fighting its way to Sandown as best it can, and even we aren’t sure by what route.  Onto IW Radio to break the bad news to our customers who haven’t left home yet, but sadly those already at bus stops are going to be stuck waiting.

Before long it’s just the 2 and 3 that are now diverted, but they are having to go through St Helens, Bembridge and Yaverland instead of Brading…they are getting later and later, and the drivers swap between them and route 9, so it’s time to act quickly to swap drivers around as best we can…send a member of staff from the offices in Newport to Ryde to juggle it as well as he can and keep the waiting customers there informed.

We soon hear that the roads on the diversion are chaotic, but there is little we can do.  We do have a moment of inspiration though..the railway!  A quick call to our friends at Islandline, and they come to our aid immediately agreeing to take our customers who can use the train instead of the bus and accepting our tickets.  Back onto the Radio, asking them to tell people who can use the railway instead to do so!

3pm and it’s all over.  We’ve stopped the flow of diesel, and got the bus back to the garage in Newport courtesy of Stag Lane Motors, and the road has reopened.

Another day over…what will tomorrow bring???