theTeam.

Simon has been working hard to put the world of buses right.

By Simon Wallis, Operator Staff Development Manager, TFL Bus 21 Oct 2009.

Q1. What are the big business challenges?

Capacity. We currently handle 6m passengers per day and it’s set to hit around 8m per day by 2025 – so how do we deal with this without huge increases in service provision that will incur cost? We need to make more use of off-peak capacity too. There is a large peak during the morning commuter rush hour, it flatlines during the day and early afternoon, and then the peak is fatter in the evening as people stagger the time they go home. We also have to focus on simplifying things for the passenger. Then there is managing congestion – the single biggest issue to affect reliability. A new project by the London Traffic Control Centre has helped enormously, with computer-programmed traffic light phasing. It means that any problems are spotted immediately on CCTV and the lights are automatically phased rather than manually operated. It’s a much more reliable system.

Q2. Are your employees engaged?

We are currently creating a ‘learning evolution’. By training the training staff, we can try and get the trainers to rethink how they teach people to be a bus driver. You have to be smarter and do more with less. We have revamped the BTEC qualification so it’s more inspiring especially in the lead up to 2012. We need bus drivers to show the world they are good and will go the extra mile. It links back to the values of TFL – which are now very well known throughout TFL and all modes of transport departments.

Q3. How do you maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty?

It`s about giving people choice, not brand loyalty. Passengers don’t care if an Arriva or a Metroline bus arrives at their stop, it’s all about route loyalty. People will quote that they live on a road that serves the W12, that’s what they remember. London Bus does not promote loyalty in the same way a retail outfit may do. Through journey planner, TFL give passengers advice on the best route for their journey and may even suggest walking or cycling instead! It helps take the pressure off the buses. TFL are more joined-up in their thinking now and will consider other modes of transport – these also have environmental benefits of course.

Q4. What do you see as the future of transport?

I think we are on the cusp of a revolution in terms of how we provide services. It’s all about people. The bus companies with the best people skills will be the most competitive. Technology is a tool and hybrid or hydrogen-run vehicles can cut running costs, companies can also tweak the interiors and improve comfort levels somewhat, however we are starting to see a real difference when companies make a change to their recruitment policies. We are encouraging companies to recruit people who already know how to engage with customers. They need to have customer service skills already – we can teach them to drive a bus.

Q5. What are you doing to keep your marketing fresh?

There is a real appetite for marketing innovation in TFL but things must also be kept simple. We have invested in SMS and by next year, we will be able to provide real-time information on the bus network, passengers can personalise their bus route on the web and you will be able to request the next three bus times on your mobile phone. I-Bus has been a huge investment for us and the automatic on-board announcements now help all passengers as well as people with visual and hearing impairments enormously. We are looking at the basic principles – what actual information is required and how can we make it easy for passengers? The technology now exists but we need to keep it simple!