All change at the Park S
INCE BECOMING part of the company in early 2012, Northumberland Park garage has been busy getting used to the Go-Ahead London way of life. This hasn’t been a oneway process, as Go-Ahead London has been busy helping to improve the garage as well. Not only were there some quick fixes, such as repairs to the garage’s double glazing and concrete paths that had fallen into disrepair, there were also some more long-term changes made, such as the installation of a new IT system. There has also been a steady switch over to using all existing Go-Ahead London standards and procedures. And, as of April, employees can even do their training at the garage following the upgrade of existing facilities. “It was great to immediately see the commitment the company has to our garage in the way they helped rectify some of the problems we were having,” said general manager Angie Ryder. “All of our employees deserve to work in the best conditions possible, something Go-Ahead London has been really committed to in the last year. “Being able to train people at the
in July and former engineering manager Mick Reavill is now working in the same role at Merton, with Chris Burke taking on the engineering manager’s role at the garage. A Northumberland Park employee has even received the first promotion at the garage since its acquisition by Go-Ahead, with Richard Betts, formerly a driver, becoming a temporary driving instructor. As for the future, Angie says there are already plans in place as to how the garage is going to continue to grow in 2013. “We have already won a couple of routes, the 327 and 491, but we are still hungry for more,” she added. “Now that we are past General manager the bedding-in period, Angie Ryder finds it there is a definite focus on far easier working becoming as competitive with the new screens as we can in the tender and telephones. market. “The garage will garage has made things far easier hopefully be used as in terms of travelling too, with a base for Go-Ahead London’s colleagues not always having to operations in the north of the city, make their way over to Camberwell which means we need to start or Peckham.” winning more tenders and gaining There have also been more customers. some changes in roles and “Having said that, I am incredibly responsibilities. proud of the way all of my On top of her existing colleagues at the garage have responsibilities Angie will be taking risen to the challenge and I am on the general manager’s role looking forward to even more at Docklands and Blue Triangle success in 2013!”
It’s a Go-Ahead for Gmail Go-Ahead London has recently switched over from Microsoft Outlook’s email platform to using Google Mail. This move will not only save the company money but will also help to keep pace with the ever-changing technical and digital age. Google’s simplicity and feature-rich structure appeals to casual users as well as corporate users; with the Chrome browser as well as Google Apps such as GMail, Calendar and Drive becoming commonplace. In November of last year, 25 employees were chosen to pilot a trial of Google Apps with their feedback directly taken into account when considering the switch. 2
BusTalk l April 2013
“The overall feedback from our pilot users was incredibly positive and the decision was taken to switch from Microsoft Outlook to Google,” said communications manager Sheldon Malcolm. “In January, a specialist team spent a month training more than 400 employees to use the system, with Google Apps going live company-wide from January 28. “GMail is smart, fresh and enables more efficient working practices and we are thrilled that Google Apps has fitted in so well with Go-Ahead London’s style of work. “It is an enormous step forward and we are proud to be part of this ever-changing world of technology and real time communication.”
A view from the front line
Chris Burke. AS ONE of the newer arrivals to the Northumberland Park team, engineering manager Chris Burke has been busy helping the garage switch over to Go-Ahead London standards and procedures. “The challenge has been to maintain a good level of performance while the changes have been made,” said Chris. “We are starting to near the end of the transition period and things are going really well so far. “The garage now has a number of satellite managers who work across a seven-day period, as opposed to five days previously. “This is a big change as it makes it much easier for us to plan work that may be going on over a long period of time.”
Greg French, a Google pilot user, checks out the guidelines prepared for staff.