ISSUE 1
MANABUS.COM STAFF NEWSLETTER KEKO ON THE LOOSE! Our mascot will be out and about this summer... Pg 3
DECEMBER 2014 GETTING SOCIAL Our facebook ‘Send us your Selfie’ competition kicks off this week... Pg 3
STAYING CONNECTED Super support deserves our thanks! Without the help of many individuals and teams from our sister company’s in Souter Holdings, it is unlikely we would have reached the milestones we have to enable us to begin operation on time. These are people who weighed in when we needed it and for that we acknowledge with a huge heartfelt THANK YOU! At Howick and Eastern, General Manager Sheryll, Workshops’ Dennis, Operations Ash and Troy plus Trainer Dave, were tireless in their efforts. Particularly helpful to marketing was driver Troy assisting with full day video and photography shoots. At Mana Coach Services and Newlands Coach in Wellington, Chuds, a ‘man of many talents but little knowledge’ (his words!) went the extra mile with teamsters Bev in operations and Lynn in recruitment. We were also heavily supported by our cousins at Fullers, with DD and his supply chain contacts as well as his Freight shed team of Chris, Terry, Prince and Daniel. Behind the scenes, even more people are helping with Gavin and his entire Finance Team, Simran and Kefu in IT and Alfrey and Catlin in Human Resources.
Welcome to our first issue!
‘Staying Connected’ is the newsletter for all of us at ManaBus.com and we encourage you to share experiences, useful tips and photos for upcoming issues. As we are stationed in many different parts of the North Island, this newsletter is being delivered via email with the option to download and print a copy. With the final routes N3, N4 and N5 launching last Friday, we are now settling into the full service mode and this gives us an opportunity to scrutinise the way we are doing things. We expect there to be some tweaking needed to streamline our operations and your feedback on areas that may be improved would be greatly appreciated. It is vital to ‘stay connected’ over this busy holiday period, particularly with the text notifications around new rosters, traffic conditions and vehicle maintenance scheduling. The old saying ‘Communication is taking people with you’ is literally true for ManaBus.com and with vigilance it becomes yet another point-of-difference over our competitors. Overall, the ManaBus.com news is good, with a great response to our services from all regions and we have hit high occupancy rates already within a month. This is very encouraging and shows the Sir Brian Souter business model is working here in New Zealand. I realise many of you will be working over this Christmas holiday period and I hope you are able to spend some special time with family or friends as you transport many of our customers to their homes for the Christmas break. Meri Kirihimete and a Happy New Year to all!
Geoff GEOFF NORMAN, Chief Executive ManaBus.com
STAYING CONNECTED OPERATIONS
Tips for your trips: WE ALL KNOW the heat of the sun, the traffic on the road and sometimes our own crew can get the better of us so please remember we are one team and we must work together to ensure we work as one. Here are some quick tips to help make the trip easier and remind us to keep looking out for each other. RUNNING LATE? Let the Contact Centre know and also inform the driver of the vehicle you are swapping with. TAUPO INTERCHANGE – remember to inform each other and the Contact Centre if you are running more than 15minutes late each way (north/south). NEED TO REFUEL? Please always check the number on the fuel card and place ‘1’ In front, example THL456 the pin will be 1456... easy! ONBOARD SUPPLIES keep an eye on things like bottled water, ice cream - it pays to get into the habit of thinking a day or two ahead! TOILET CARE: If you find yellow ( brown) smelly water on the floor then it has come from the waste. If it is pink its come from the cistern. If it is clear then it has only come from the basin tap! CLEANING HABITS – Please work together to assign tasks to each other – it will then halve the time it takes to clean. ROTOURA CREW, please ensure you empty the coffee/ tea/hot water jugs before the vehicle travels south from Taupo. The roads twist and turn and without an attendant onboard to catch the jugs should they fall!
All you need to know about teenagers and children travelling with ManaBus.com Here we have clarified the Terms & Conditions for children travelling with manaBus.com: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS MANABUS.COM RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SUPERVISION OR CARE OF ANY CHILD. INFANTS: Infants are required to be in an approved car seat or restraint and a normal ticket must be purchased to reserve a seat for their use for safety reasons. An adult over 18 years of age must accompany infants under 3 years of age. MINORS UNDER 14 YEARS: No child under 14 years of age may travel alone on ManaBus.com. A guardian, caregiver or relative who is at least 16 years old must accompany children between 3 and 14 years of age. MINORS 14 TO 16 YEARS: Minors older than 14 years may travel alone on daytime buses, on the understanding that they travel responsibly, and will be delivered to the bus and met at the other end by a parent or guardian. The driver will not take minors, particularly at interchange points, intermediate stops, or rest stops. Please note: parents and guardians are responsible for making sure that their child is put on the bus by a relative, guardian or caregiver and that the child: • knows where they are expected to change buses, as outlined in the journey confirmation; • wears their seat belt if one is fitted; • is aware they are responsible to ensure that they are back on the bus after a rest break before the time of departure; The relative, guardian or caregiver is to be at the bus stop at least 20 minutes prior to the scheduled time of arrival in case where a bus arrives early. The bus will not wait if the relative, guardian or caregiver is not there. An unaccompanied minor under 16 cannot be responsible for anyone under the age of 14 years old. OVERNIGHT BUSES*: Unaccompanied minors under 16 years old will not be accepted on overnight bus services.
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Passengers must be 16 years or older to travel alone on an overnight bus. Passengers under 16 years must be accompanied by a parent or guardian to travel aboard an overnight bus.
STAYING CONNECTED WITH OUR COMMUNITY KEKO, OUR TRUSTY 7FT HIGH MASCOT is about to be let loose! He’ll begin his whirlwind tour in the New Year, visiting cities and nearby towns throughout the summer on a special campaign titled ‘Keko on the Loose!’ He’s keen to try a little volley ball on the beach at Mt Maunganui and may even enrol at a couple of Universities on orientation days...might even check out the 2015 World Cup Cricket in Wellington or Hamilton. We’ll keep you posted on his itinerary and if you have suggestions for events or areas where plenty of people congregate let us know...local festivals or A & P shows? Contact info@manabus.com
Above: Festive fun! High visibility at this years Santa Parade in Auckland. And (right) Kelvin is happy to drive the Christmas decorated Volvo from city-to-city!
CONNECTING IN CYBER SPACE The ManaBus.com facebook page has been a great success! Passengers are excited to post their experiences, share information with other people and take the time to thank many of our staff for their thoughtful and caring customer service. We have a growing band of loyal travellers, many keen to share and tell their friends that ManaBus.com is a breath of fresh air to the public transport scene in New Zealand. Our Social Media account gives us an opportunity to create and mould a ManaBus.com personality for our customers. Our theme is fun, light hearted but professional! In most cases, if operations are punctual, reliable and well-staffed, good customer feedback will follow. Considering only 3% of our received posts to date have been negative feedback indicates how good a job our drivers, attendants, cleaners, contact centre staff, supervisors and managers are doing in operations. Now that we have launched the N3, N4 and N5 our challenge going forward is to keep our high standards up, which I believe we will. - SCOTT SOUTER Scotty is doing a fab job of responding to our fans on facebook in such a ‘kiwi’ way that you’d never know he hails from bonny Scotland!
Our facebook competition to choose the best ‘selfie’ is underway and the lucky winner will be rewarded with a iPod nano. Special note to staff: If a passenger asks you to pose in their photo and you would rather not, you have the right to politely refuse. It is purely a personal decision and you may decline.
CONNECTING WITH OUR PASSENGERS
Now over 2,000 fans
There have been so many wonderful comments flooding into facebook about our ManaBus.com customer service and delivery we are truly living up to our slogan ‘Fast, Friendly and Affordable! Here are just a few:
Jeremy Ansell - Thanks for taking care of us on our trip to Taupo and back over the weekend. Friendly attentive service, the best ice cream and comfy seats. The children enjoyed sitting at the front on the top level pretending to be the driver. Looking forward to traveling with you again Preet Nagra - Friday (27/11) night at 12am I started my first trip with ManaBus.com from Hamilton to Wellington. That was a wonderful experience. Now on the same day 10pm I am returning back to Hamilton with the same Bus and nothing has changed… nice n clean bus, comfy seats and more friendly staff. One of the staff member, Andrea is good at customer service, thanks Andrea. You guys got a loyal customer today. Keep it up. Bella Ihapera Shayne Holden - I was fortunate enough to catch the first bus went from Manukau to Hamilton for only $3...like really? Free ice cream and coffee...I would have paid 3 bucks for coffee but a ride home and ice cream too WOW!!! Friendly service good luck on your journey MANA BUS!!! Promoting hard out to all my friends and family. CJ Jacobs Hawkins - Caught the service over the weekend with my sister, fantastic service all the way to Taupo. The service the attendees were bloody awesome. The WiFi didn't give out. The attendants to Hamilton and Rotorua -they were top class! Thanks definitely use you again. Wu Patrick - Just took the trip from Auckland to Hamilton. Cheapest fare, excellent customer service, friendly staff, brand new bus and very comfortable chair (can stretch my legs!!.
extras
The full 16-page manabus.com timetable has been printed. It will be despatched onto buses so that all routes will contain copies for distribution to passengers and also sent to a regional network of outlets. Below is a link to the online version and to save your download usage we’ve put one in the cloud for quick viewing! Simply click the link and drag the URL onto your desktop. Everytime you need rapid reference to times you simply click on the link to open the file to view.
http://issuu.com/fullersferries/docs/mb_tt/0 For stable viewing always click the white diagonal arrows bottom right of the image.
Chanel Coromandel - Had an awesome experience travelling with ManaBus.com on the 28th and 29th of November Rot-Auck and back again! Not only was the bus and facilities a delight but The attendants on board were so helpful and friendly (forgive me I forget the names) and especially the driver Hana! Enjoyed receiving my complimentary goodies. Awesome concept I hope ManaBus.com does well. Peter Rossall - Had a wonderful day in Wellington, leaving Taupo at 2.50am, returning same day at 10pm. Thanks to Mana they made this possible. Excellent service and friendly and efficient staff. Long may you run. Lee Wong Sheridan - Just got on tonight's Auckland bus. Wow what a great bus. Very flash. The wifI bit slow but there's better things to do than sit on the Internet all night. Oh there are hostesses on the bus and free refreshments OMG. Like being on a plane ride. Very smooth ride up the top in front. You've done yourselves proud. Mana will always be my first choice for all future bookings. Amazing. Forget the rest. Go with the best. Alan Brown Laurie Brown - Had an awesome trip from Wellington today back to Auckland snacks were great too well done Mana Bus Staff and Drivers Reuben Si - Traveling to Hamilton from Auckland right now as we speak. Absolutely excellent service. We have a delightful Filipina attendant serving us. Plus a bonus of free snacks onboard - what a pleasant surprise! They really are steps above the rest. Well done! You will be my first choice for bus travel in the future Merab Wilson - This stranger and I were stranded at Manukau stop when this odd looking red bus; manabus.com turned up. Staff were so kind and friendly - provided us with a tablet so we could book then and there and hop on! If that wasn't a winner already the ticket was incredibly cheap+ free wifi (using right now to type this) + charging points for electronics+ complimentary refreshments+ toilets! If this isn't some sort of trap, I'm definitely choosing you guys again! Thank you for spreading such humanity! Gavin Charles Pinkney - Thank you mana bus travelled from Rotorua to Auckland and back and what a service I got A+++ will definitely travel with you again big thank you to he attendants Joanne on the trip to Auckland and the trip back to Auckland Corazan. Jeremy Wiseman Brisbane, Australia - Just goes to show what a great product and great service can do! It's amazing to read all the great reviews ManaBus.com is receiving! Having staff that actually care about the brand and the service they are delivering, love reading the reviews! GO ManaBus.com and the exceptional team!
The ManaBus.com Contact Centre is not just for our customers, its also been designed for all crew. You can call the Contact Centre: • If you are running Late • If you have break down • If there has been an accident • For passenger queries • If you become ill • To update traffic conditions The Contact Centre has a dedicated staff phone line:
09-367-9120 We’d love you to contribute to the “Staying Connected’ newsletter. Please share your stories, tips, photos and funny quips! Simply email contributions to the editor maree.peterson@manabus.com
Merry Christmas to our entire ManaBus.com team!
Wishing you a safe and happy Christmas and hope everyone gets to spend some special time with friends and family MANABUS.COM DIRECTORS & MANAGEMENT