BUS TALK 05 August 2010 by Go-Ahead London

No.5 • August 2010

EVEN TOP DRIVERS CAN BENEFIT FROM CPC COURSE

STAY SAFE A NEW Driver CPC course is about to be rolled out this month (August) and will help raise awareness of incident management and the prevention of accidents. The one-day seminar will also promote cycle awareness among Go-Ahead London drivers. The course is called IMPACT and is being run by training and development manager Eric Dale and his colleagues in the training school. Eric said: “Our drivers are already a cut above the rest and have the talent and the ability to drive skillfully and professionally, but we want to remind them of the need to stay alert at all times in a bid to avoid accidents. “In the wrong hands a bus can be a lethal weapon so

it’s crucial to anticipate the road ahead at all times and be prepared to expect the unexpected. “If someone is standing near the edge of a curb, slow down and prepare yourself for what he or she might do. We all have days when we switch to autopilot and you never know when someone might just step out into the road. “If you’re used to driving a single deck bus and have transferred to a double deck bus make sure you know whether you can clear all the bridges on your route. “There is nothing worse than knowing that you could • Continued on page 2

FACE TO FACE meet Merton driver Cliff: p4

PRAISED David helps halt bullies: p8

IAM scheme aims to cut accident rate too: p3

FEATURE: COMMERCIAL DEPARTMENT’S ‘NICE LITTLE EARNER’ p4-5

New route now proving popular with drivers POPULAR and performing well is how base manager Keith Faulkner described Waterside Way’s G1 service. The former Abellio route began on May 1 when 14 drivers from Putney assisted staff at Waterside Way to get the service up and running. A couple of months later, four of the Putney drivers stayed on and the other 10 had been supplied by Recruitment to complete the requirement of 27. “The G1 runs from Streatham to

NEW CPC COURSE BEING ROLLED OUT

• Continued from page 1

have avoided an accident. We don’t want our drivers to be involved in an accident and neither do we want to bring unnecessary costs to the company.” As well as giving facts and figures about the financial and emotional costs of accidents, Eric and his team will also be explaining about the company’s Bump Card and the importance of filling it in correctly with third party details. Managing director John Trayner has backed the CPC course by helping to produce a DVD on how accidents can be prevented. John narrates from start to finish on the 20-minute video and this will be shown at the start of each IMPACT course. Subjects covered include the implications of the most common type of accident and how anticipation and awareness can reduce, if not eliminate, incidents.

Great model offer for staff

Fabulous models of the Enviro 400 hybrids operating on Route 24 are now available for the specially discounted price of £20. The offer is on a first come first served basis. See garage notice boards for more details or send a cheque made out to Go-Ahead London, along with your name and location to: Valerie Clark, MD’s Personal Assistant, Go-Ahead London, 18 Merton High Street, SW19 1DN. 2

BusTalk l August 2010

Battersea,” said Keith. “It serves St George’s and Springfield hospitals and parts of it are hail and ride. It isn’t the easiest of routes to learn and during the peaks it can take an hour and 15 minutes. “There were a few concerns at first among the drivers, but it’s actually become very popular and it’s performing reasonably well too. There are one or two timing issues but the schedules department are on the case and a few adjustments are to be made.”

The addition of the G1 to Waterside Way brings the number of drivers to 82 and the fleet to 31, plus seven commercial buses. The garage operates two other routes, the 39 and 485. Buses used on the G1 are refurbished 8.8-metre Darts. “Preparations for the route and its first few weeks of operation were really busy,” added Keith, “and I’d like to thank Putney and Stockwell, who gave us 10 buses, for their assistance.”

Six out of six!

Graham Johnson, centre, celebrates with Bexleyheath staff following news of the retention of routes B11, B16, 229, 244, 401 and 422.

“A GREAT result”. That’s how Bexleyheath general manager Karl Blair described the garage’s latest tendering results. Six of the garage’s contracts were up for renewal and all were retained in the face of

“pretty stiff” competition. The routes are B11, B16, 229, 244, 401 and 422. The new contracts begin in January 2011 for five years. Karl said: “This is an excellent result for Bexleyheath and I would like to congratulate the

team for the all the hard work they’ve put in to bring us this success.” Karl added that price was also a “very important” factor as operators throughout London were “being squeezed to keep costs down”.

Prizes galore up for grabs PRIZES worth about £3,000 are being claimed by some of GoAhead London’s top 1,500 drivers. Prizes range from a free canteen cuppa to items like a satellite navigation system, an iPod and cameras. The top 13 prizes are worth £200 each. Two of the top 13 prize winners are Darrel Cunningham, from Sutton, who wins a satellite navigation system, and Martin Davies, from Blue Triangle, who receives a Nikon digital camera. Those eligible to enter the competition must be members of Go-Ahead London’s Go-Green

Drivers’ Club, who have received a special prize draw scratch card with their copy of the club’s newsletter. Business development manager Frank Thorpe said: “In order to stand a chance of winning one of a whole range of prizes, drivers have to be members of the club. This means that their driving is of a high standard and that they use fuel efficiently.” Darrel said: “I am absolutely delighted to have won the sat nav for driving fuel efficiently. The GoGreen campaign is an excellent idea because basically it is about driving well.”

Darrel, who has worked as a service adviser for VW and prior to that an HGV mechanic for 25 years, added: “I have always tried to drive carefully. The GoGreen campaign reinforces the message that it is safe to drive well, it’s environmentally friendly and it saves fuel, therefore it saves the company money.” Martin said: “I’m over the moon with the camera. It’s great to win a prize for just driving carefully and calmly. Driving in the green takes a lot of pressure off drivers, which is safer for them and, of course, our passengers.

• Frank added that he hoped to introduce between 800 and 1,000 new members of the club by the end of September as more and more drivers were driving within the green band continuously for 12 weeks, the benchmark for membership.

Random breath tests follow serious incident RANDOM alcohol tests are being carried out at bus stands. The tests are over and above those generated by the payroll bureau and follow a serious incident in which a Go-Ahead London driver was involved in an accident and received a custodial sentence. Tests are being carried out by controller Duncan Knox on an informal basis. But the company is looking at the possibility of testing on a more structured footing. The accident happened late one evening in June when the bus was in Streatham High Road and the driver lost control and hit three parked vehicles. The bus, which was carrying about 20 passengers, came to a stop some 100 metres along the road. The driver remained in the cab and the police found him to be over the legal

drink-drive limit. He was fast-tracked into court and given a 16-week custodial sentence, a three-year driving ban and a fine. General manager Colin Langford said: “This is an extremely serious case in which a driver had a serious accident as a result of drinking alcohol. “He is lucky to have escaped with his life and it is a miracle that no-one else appears to have been hurt. The driver has lost his livelihood, his freedom and money in terms of the fine. It is unlikely he will ever drive for a living again.” Colin said that if a driver felt he or she had concerns about possible drugs or alcohol problems they should seek advice from their doctor or their manager. He added that the payroll bureau randomly generated the names of people to be tested

IAM mentors now helping colleagues pass exam AN UNUSUAL initiative aimed at reducing accidents was launched at Merton garage last month (July). Drivers Natasha Lambert and Steve Riches have passed their Institute of Advanced Motorists’ (IAM) driving examination for buses and been specially trained as mentors to coach their colleagues for the qualification. Accident prevention manager Graham Oliver said: “The idea is to cut the number of accidents, but at the same time it offers drivers an important qualification they can achieve in their own time and without any pressure, like an open university course.” Initially, Graham expects to train about 30

drivers and to expand the scheme if it is a success. “I see this is as a self-funding exercise in raising driving standards,” said Graham. “The money we save reducing accidents can be invested in developing existing safe driving initiatives and creating new ones.” Drivers who are ready to take the IAM exam will do so from Merton garage over a route that includes accident hotspots. The tests will be taken by independent IAM examiners. Although the exam will be taken in the driver’s time, the company will bear the cost of membership for one year and thereafter provided he or she maintains an accident-free record.

every fortnight, with a view that 20 per cent of employees should be tested for drugs and alcohol in a year. Colin congratulated Duncan Knox for the work he did in writing up a detailed report of the incident, which enabled the company to limit the costs involved. He added that Duncan was carrying out informal tests at bus stands as an added precaution in the light of the incident. Duncan said: “I am carrying out alcohol tests very discreetly at bus stands. They are random and so far I’ve had no objections, in fact a number of drivers have told me this should have been done a long time ago.” • Any member of staff refusing to take a drugs or alcohol test when asked will be deemed to have failed and will be suspended.

Disappointment over route losses

NEW CROSS and Camberwell are to lose three major routes following competitive tender. The three routes are the C10 (New Cross), which represents 14 single-deckers’ worth of work; the 172 (also New Cross), which involves 14 double-deckers’ worth of work; and the 484 (Camberwell), a 12 singledecker operation. All three contracts were won by Abellio and will transfer in March 2011. Martin Bamford, assistant tendering manager said: “The loss of these routes is disappointing and extremely frustrating considering the effort that everybody involved with the routes has put into maintaining a high quality service.” BusTalk l August 2010

FEATURE

he commercial department has made a significant contribution to Go-Ahead London’s profit over the past 12 months. Its manager, Colin Farrant, said that considering the squeeze and people’s reluctance to spend money the department had done well. However, clients are now more determined than ever to get value for money. Bus Talk reports …

We chat to Merton driver Cliff Smith, who has worked for Go-Ahead London for five years. We ask him 10 light-hearted questions. Q: Who do you think is the greatest sportsman or woman of all time? A: Muhammad Ali. Q: What item would you rescue first from a fire? A: My music collection. Q: Who do you most admire? A: My Dad – when I was young I thought he was too strict but as an adult I realise it did me a lot of good. Q: Which household chore do you least enjoy? A: Hoovering. Q: What was your favourite subject at school? A: English. Q: Which treats are always on your shopping list? A: I love jam doughnuts! Q: How would you spend £1 million? A: I would pay off all my debts including the mortgage, save some and give some to family members. Q: What’s the best journey you have ever taken? A: It was a holiday in Mexico with my partner Marie. Q: Which country would you most like to visit? A: Either Egypt or Australia. Q: If you had the time, what hobby would you like to take up? A: Photography. 4

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DESPITE tough times, Go-Ahead London’s commercial department continues to provide the company with a nice little earner. Its special events calendar during the summer has been packed with ‘traditional’ work and the department continues to mount significant rail replacement operations. In addition to all this the department has won new contracts and developed new work. The private hire operation has, however, shown a downturn since the slump with fewer clients inclined to splash out. However, Colin pointed out that Routemasters were still “very popular” for weddings and corporate events. The department has operated bus services both commercially and under contract at a number of the world’s most famous events for many years.

Special Events They include the Chelsea flower show, Wimbledon tennis championships, Derby Day and the Farnborough International Air Show. The flower show generally kicks off the hectic summer schedule for GoAhead London and has done so for about 20 years. It operates a park and ride service from Battersea to Chelsea under contract to the Royal Horticultural Society and a commercial service, with RMs and easy-access buses, from Victoria. Some 20 vehicles, 30 drivers, three controllers and three pavement conductors were used this year. The Epsom Derby this year involved about 30 drivers on Derby Day itself, five pavement conductors, six controllers and an engineer. The company ran private hire operations and services from Epsom station to the Downs and from Morden station, the latter an historic link dating back to the 1930s when thousands of

people poured out of the London Underground (LU) station to get special buses to the races. Vehicles from the Go-Ahead London fleet were used in addition to some from Go South Coast. Drivers were all from Go-Ahead London. Some 60 staff and 30 vehicles were required every day for the Wimbledon tennis championships. Commercial services were run from Wimbledon and Southfields stations to the courts plus another from central London. A park and ride service operated from Merton College under contract to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. During the tennis championships, the department handled

TEA NIC

services to the Biggin Hill air show and, in stark contrast, the Glastonbury rock festival. Then there was Hampton Court flower show with its two park and ride services and an express bus from central London. The commercial department this year won the internal shuttle from First at the Farnborough International Air Show and once again operated services from central London and Heathrow. Some 55 vehicles were used on public days and they came from Go-Ahead Group companies and Stagecoach and Countryliner.

AM BRINGS IN ‘A CE LITTLE EARNER’ Rail Replacement

Putney and Waterside Way have been doing an “excellent’ job providing buses on Sundays between Gunnersbury and Gospel Oak stations for London Overground. This is likely to go on until the end of the year and Go-Ahead London has also been working on contracts for LU on the District, Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines among others. Go-Ahead London continues to be contracted by Southern and Southeastern train companies to manage all their planned rail replacement requirements,

although the Southern part of the contract is currently being reviewed as part of the new Southern franchise agreement. Towards the end of last year the company won a contract from Southeastern to run a shuttle from Stratford International to Stratford Regional stations.

Other Work The popularity of London by Night continues unabated and an extra journey was put on this summer. The Kensington Connection, which is a day bus for tourists, was reintroduced this year made

possible by wrap advertising from Madame Tussauds. Also starting this summer was a new excursion from Kingston to Brighton. It runs every Sunday during the summer and then on to Eastbourne and Worthing on alternate Sundays. Colin said of this year’s work: “It’s been quite a good year despite the recession. Much of our business has remained buoyant, but we are seeing tougher negotiating positions because people want more for their money and top quality service.” Colin’s team comprises commercial operations managers Tony Bull and Tony Atkinson, commercial operations supervisor John Hopkinson, commercial assistants Carly Hawkins, Dave Ewing, Richard Ashman, Debbie Gladding and industry stalwart Frank Dodge.

The commercial team. Richard Ashman and Debbie Gladding were on holiday when the photo was taken.

Cyclists take tough trip to the coast... THE New Cross garage team for the annual London to Brighton cycle ride attracted some new faces this year and raised another £1,000 for the British Heart Foundation. Among the newies was Go-Ahead Group engineering director Phil Margrave. It’s the third year engineer Derek Parker has organised the garage team to take part in the ride and he reckons that he and his colleagues have raised well over £4,500 in that time. “Thousands of cyclists from all over the country take part every year and it’s a great day out,” said Derek. “I’d like to thank all those who took part and Paul Harris and Pat Glover for driving us all back to London.” Cyclists included Hugh Brathwaite, Danny Bushell, Darren Connolly, Jack Ebdon, Clive Gaywood, Danny Gunther, Jason Mahoney, Phil Margrave, Lucy Margrave, Andrew Onslow, Lee Onslow, Derek Parker, Nigel Pike, Robbie Small and Ray Thomas.

...and Leroy pedals his way to £600 A CHARITY is £600 better off thanks to driver Leroy Chester’s cycling prowess and sponsorship from his colleagues at Stockwell garage. Leroy took part in a 26-mile cyclothon from Chelsea to Ham House, near Richmond, and back in June to raise money for research into leukaemia and lymphoma. “The event went really well, although it was tiring in the Richmond area because of the hills. I would like to thank my colleagues and friends for their generosity,” said Leroy, who suffers from sickle cell anaemia. Leroy said his next objective was to raise money for the Sickle Cell Society, probably by taking part in another big cycling event. BusTalk l August 2010

Six of the best: garage is right up there STAFF at Bexleyheath have good reason to be feel pleased with themselves, as their garage is officially among the top six in London. Bexleyheath is on a short list of six for Garage of the Year at the UK Bus Awards – a prize it won in 2002. This year Bexleyheath is up against equally stiff competition in the form of Arriva London’s Wood Green garage, First’s Uxbridge and its Lea Interchange (built for the Olympics), Metrobus at Croydon and Metroline’s Edgware. The award benchmarks the performance of

London bus garages and gives the best a cash prize to be used to benefit the team. Performance in all areas of operation is considered, including driver quality, lost mileage, wheelchair ramp operation and QSIs. In addition, every short listed garage has to make a submission to the judges outlining its achievements. In his submission, general manager Karl Blair outlined the garage’s successful and ongoing campaign to reduce vandalism and anti-social behaviour on buses.

He also said that the garage had introduced a mentor scheme to advise and guide drivers on how to achieve higher standards in their work. “The team has continued to work hard over the years and I really would like to see their efforts rewarded by winning the top prize. But whatever the outcome, to be among the top six is excellent and the recognition by TfL is richly deserved.” • The company has also nominated staff for ‘Top London Bus Driver’ and ‘London Service Quality Award’.

Garry’s quick thinking praised

A POLICE officer has written to praise Bexleyheath driver Garry Whitaker for his quick thinking and the unusual way he dealt with a lost and frightened child. Garry was on the B11 stand at Thamesmead when he saw a small Chinese child wandering around looking lost. “She certainly looked distressed,” said Garry, “so I took her on board the bus to keep her safe and called a Code Red.” Two police officers arrived, but the girl spoke very little English. All Garry managed to understand was that she was on a 472 bus and had missed her stop at Plumstead.

“We couldn’t get any more than that,” said Garry, “so I rang my local Chinese restaurant, which isn’t far from the garage and asked the woman to translate over the phone.” After a while they discovered the girl was seven years old and lived in Plumstead. The officers escorted her home on her local bus. “She looked so frightened, but I was just pleased she was safe,” said Garry, who has worked for Go-Ahead London for more than two years. One of the officers later thanked Garry and said: “Not everyone would have thought to have phoned their local Chinese restaurant for an interpreter, but it saved the day!”

Engineering team get a VIP visitor

Peter Hendy (in beige suit) was impressed when he paid a visit to Camberwell. He is flanked by engineering manager Robbie Small, general manager Bill Roberts, workshop manager Gerry May and operations director David Cutts. MEMBERS of the engineering team at Camberwell were joined by a VIP this summer… Peter Hendy, Commissioner of Transport for London, paid the garage a visit in June to learn more about the engineering facility. 6

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Engineering manager Robbie Small said: “Peter seemed very impressed following his tour of the site and said how bright, airy and clean the new building was. “We explained that our top priority was the health and safety of the engineering team and

how that had been key to the project. “As well as taking a tour of the rest of Camberwell garage with general manager Bill Roberts, Peter also spent time with the training department and learnt more about the iBus system from the control team.”

High-tech facility ready for lift-off ONE OF London’s most modern engineering facilities has opened – and it’s at Go-Ahead London’s Camberwell garage. Millions of pounds have been spent on the state-of-the-art facility, which has been built on the site of an old car park adjacent to Camberwell garage. Engineers have now moved into their new premises and soon the old building will be knocked down to make space for additional parking. Engineering manager Robbie Small says the new workshops have been kitted out with all the equipment necessary for 21st century engineering. A great deal of thought and planning has gone into the project, with particular focus on health and safety. Robbie said: “Previously, we had 12 vehicle inspection pits, but now we only have one, which is in a segregated area and will be used for FFDs. “Instead of pits, we’ll have sky lifts with drive-on ramps so that engineers can work more freely and without space limitations. All engineering employees will be trained on how to use the new lifting equipment. “The old pits were designed years ago with RTs and Routemasters in mind so we hope the new ramps will give the engineers more room to work,

Sky lifts with driveon ramps mean engineers can work more freely. particularly on low-floor vehicles.” Energy saving devices are just some of the new features in the building, which are set to help GoAhead London minimise its carbon footprint. Robbie says feedback from the engineers has been really positive and he’s keen to praise them for their patience. “We have had delays on the project, but it allowed the team to offer advice on the layout of the building and where to put the equipment. “There’s no doubt the new working environment is cleaner and brighter and there are added facilities, such as a larger mess room and more showers,” added Robbie.

Retirements...