The ALBUM Report 2022

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THE ALBUM REPORT 2022

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The ALBUM Report 2022

Contents

WELCOME It’s so good to be back! Welcome to The ALBUM Report 2022, a publication from Passenger Transport devoted to Britain’s independent and municipal bus companies. Returning for a sixth year, this year’s report also incorporates the official Conference Workbook for the 2022 ALBUM Conference, hosted by Blackpool Transport on April 26-27. We hope you find it an interesting read!

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BILL HIRON

HIGHLIGHTS

ALBUM’s chair, Bill Hiron, on big challenges and big opportunities

A look back at some of the main highlights of the past 12 months for ALBUM members

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JANE COLE

THE PEOPLE PUZZLE

Blackpool Transport’s managing director explains why she is excited about the future

Blackpool Transport’s Shane Grindey on recruiting and retaining staff

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ALEXANDER DENNIS

GILES FEARNLEY

Paul Davies and Chris Gall on helping bus operators make the transition to net zero

Helping the industry to ‘bus back better’ in his new role with Tracsis Transport Consultancy

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TRANSPORT FOCUS

EPM

Providing evidence-based support to help delivers better bus services for passengers

EPM Group aims to empower control room teams with integrated technology

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TIMESPACE

JOURNEO

CONFERENCE WORKBOOK

Live camera streams and remote download over 4G provide time and cost savings for operators

How integrating on-vehicle technology saves bus operators time and money

All the information you need about the 2022 ALBUM Conference

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17/04/2022 18/03/2022 12:11 10:02

The ALBUM Report 2022

Bill Hiron

Despite the challenges of Covid-19, ALBUM chairman Bill Hiron says he remains passionate about both his business and the wider bus industry

NEGOTIATING STORMY SEAS ALBUM chairman Bill Hiron says bus operators face big challenges, but there are big opportunities too. He spoke to Andrew Garnett

ack in 2019 ALBUM chairman Bill Hiron said he was thoroughly enjoying his year as chair of the organisation which represents Britain’s municipal and independent bus companies. Little did he know what was around the corner.

Three years later and Britain’s bus landscape looks completely different. After the storm of the Covid-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdowns, the bus sector is still grappling with the challenges of rebuilding patronage and funding. Meanwhile, the sector’s long-held plea for a national bus strategy has been answered with the publication of Bus Back Better a year ago.

Reflecting the challenges the industry has faced, Hiron remains in-post as ALBUM chairman and despite a tough two years, the

B

managing director of bus operator Stephensons of Essex remains passionate about both his business and the wider bus industry. He reflects on the pandemic and how it strengthened the bond between ALBUM members.

Regular Zoom calls throughout the pandemic allowed members to effectively share experiences and best practice. So successful were they that when it was recently suggested that they might be phased out as restrictions have been eased, members vehemently argued against such a move.

“It’s all been rather surreal really,” says Hiron. “But in some ways, Covid only brought out the best in the bus industry. We worked closely and effectively and bonds were created in weeks that might have taken a lifetime to occur previously. I think that’s to the industry’s credit.”

BALANCING THE BOOKS

As the pandemic hit many wondered how the industry, particularly the smaller municipal and SME operators, would cope.

Thankfully, UK Government support was rapidly forthcoming with the Covid-19 Bus Service Support Grant (CBSSG).

“To give the government credit, they have funded the bus industry throughout the pandemic,” says Hiron. “There were lots of strings attached to that, about not making a profit and that sort of thing, and if you were cynical you could say we were only being paid to provide a level of service.”

When the industry moved on to the first iteration of the Bus Recovery Grant (BRG), which Hiron says set out to provide a level of service that was not below 90% of what it was before the pandemic, he believes it was more

challenging for the industry.

He continues: “The move away from CBSSG was, to some extent, to be welcomed, because there were so many strings attached.

We were never going to get back to any sort of commercial freedom or commercial decision making with it remaining in place.

BRG allowed that to happen, to a degree. The challenge with BRG was, in the Department for Transport’s eyes, the numbers worked for the industry as a whole but didn’t necessarily take into account local differences.”

Hiron explains that these local differences include the proportion of commercial services versus tendered and factors such as the proportion of regular concessionary pass users versus commercial revenue. He argues that in some cases it was debatable whether the BRG funding

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The ALBUM Report 2022 constituted enough to allow operators to balance their books.

More fundamentally this meant there were some operators who were clearly winners; conversely, there were others that were very much losers.

“The government accept that,” Hiron says. “There was a risk that, at best, some operators would decide not to accept BRG and, at worst, would go bust as part of the process. So BRG has been a challenge in that there are particular markets, or combinations of markets, where it has probably broadly done the job.

But there are also some markets where it has been very short of where it needs to be.”

From an SME perspective this is something that is more pronounced, adds Hiron. He says the big group have, to some extent, a portfolio of operations, with the possible exception of National Express, which means they’ve won in some areas but lost in others.

For smaller operators, that’s simply not been the case. “The SME sector, and ALBUM, which is broadly representative of the same thing, range from the municipals and former municipals which are, on the whole, urban, slow speed networks with a relatively high proportion of commercial cash-paying passengers, through to the typical independent who are far more reliant on tendered work and concessions,” Hiron continues. “And then you’ve got the people who fall somewhere between the two.”

The end result is that the effect of BRG on the ALBUM sector has varied. In some places there are operators who have managed to balance their books, but in others there are those who Hiron knows have been very poorly served by it.

“While the funding has been very welcome overall from an industry perspective, we mustn’t overlook the fact that there are winners and losers - if you want to call them that,” he adds.

Hiron goes on to criticise the additional funding which was announced at the start of March, in particular, the uncertainty as the deadline for the phase-out of BRG approached which left operators unable to plan for the future. He also believes, that unless

patronage does return, then those operators who were struggling with BRG, coupled with reduced concessionary fare reimbursement, will fare even worse under the new arrangements.

“It is going to create some difficult situations, across the industry,” he adds.

is now predominantly students travelling to either school or college and that’s a market that has largely returned to normal.

He continues: “What we do have are a number of services that have taken people before the school peak in the morning to and from stations for commuting to London. That market is still pretty dead and even where it has come back it’s now very much a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday market… you haven’t escaped the costs of operating that service every weekday unless you cut it down to just operating between Tuesday and Thursday, so the revenue has squeezed itself down to just three days a week rather than five.

“I know of places around the country where they have a large proportion of government workers, civil servants, academics, professional workers and the like who are all still largely working from home. You have to question whether the journey-to-work markets for those operators will ever return or even recover.”

Hiron highlights the experience of his own company which served the site of one major employer, partly with a commercially registered service and partly with a private shuttle bus. “During Covid-19 they all started working from home,” he reveals. “That service ceased. They’ve started filtering back to the office in recent weeks, and they have a site with very little car parking, but it is still very unclear to us where working from home will fit in their model.

That will obviously have an impact

THE PATRONAGE CONUNDRUM

As operators struggle with the emergency funding arrangements presented by the pandemic, Hiron also foresees issues with the return of passengers. He says that discussions within the ALBUM community have revealed huge differences between members with concessionary travel recovering far slower than commercial fare-paying passengers. Tendered service networks are also faring worse than commercial services too.

“There is still huge uncertainty and there are some markets that just will never recover,” believes Hiron. Speaking from his own experiences as an Essex bus operator, he says his company has not been taking people to and from work for a long time. Peak traffic

“Bus Back Better is a welcome recognition of the value that buses bring to the economy, social inclusion and regeneration”

Hiron says his company is seeing major changes to patronage across the patch

on their bus service.”

He’s also concerned about what impact Covid-19 will have on the viability of high streets. A major flow for bus operators up and down the country comes not only from shoppers travelling into town but from store staff too.

“You go to some towns and there are more charity shops than there ever were and more and more boarded up shops too,” Hiron adds. “In many of those sorts of towns, the big retailers have just gone. You have to wonder what sort of recovery there will be? Clearly, if there’s no recovery of the town, then there’s not much hope of a recovery for the local bus service.”

BUILDING BACK BETTER?

Hiron fears there is a disconnect in the relationships between some local authorities and bus operators. This is likely to reach a tipping point at some point soon as those fears surrounding funding and patronage changes start to bite. He points to some areas, like South Yorkshire, that are seeking to protect their local bus networks from revisions or cuts but are unwilling to put up financial support.

“They are sort of sticking their fingers in their ears and loudly saying, ‘It has to be 100% and someone has to pay for it as long as it’s not us’,” adds Hiron caustically. He then contrasts that with some local authorities who have just never really cared about buses. “But then you’ve got a typical shire county who I think understands it, and operators have been in discussion with them, but until the deregistrations hit they won’t start to grasp the reality of the situation.”

Despite those fears, Hiron does welcome Bus Back Better - England’s national bus strategy and the environment it creates for partnership working.

“It’s a welcome recognition of the value that buses bring to the economy, social inclusion and regeneration,” he explains. “On paper at least, it is the biggest commitment we’ve had in a long time from any government to the bus sector. We should be grateful for that, appreciate it and commend it.”

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Bill Hiron IS THE SMALLER OPERATOR’S LOT A HAPPY ONE?

Hiron believes Covid brought out the best in the bus industry. 'We worked effectively,' he says. 'Bonds were created in weeks.'

He also says that broadly across the industry, and this was very much the case in the areas within which Stephensons operates, operators and local authorities worked very well to develop their Bus Service Improvement Plans.

In some areas it was also clear this was the first meaningful engagement local authorities had ever had with their operators.

But Hiron’s praise comes with some serious caveats; to his mind, it was very clear that different parts of the strategy were written by different authors. Meanwhile, there are some serious smoke and mirrors regarding future funding.

Speaking as we were before the results of the BSIP funding were announced, Hiron prophesied it was clear that not every part of the country would be rewarded with funding, but he was still optimistic about the environment Bus Back Better creates.

“It is a stepping stone,” he says.

“I think there will be further funding available in future years and by putting in the bedding rock of EPs (Enhanced Partnerships) now, just because Authority X hasn’t had any funding this year, doesn’t mean it won’t get funding in 2023 or 2024 or 2025, particularly if it can demonstrate it’s building its relationship with the local operators and that it’s spending some of its own money on some good things, so they’ve got

something positive to show next time around, rather than just some very fine words.”

He says if the industry buys into that then the foundations are clearly in place, providing the Treasury comes up with some more pots of money in future years, of course.

However, Hiron also counters this with a far more cynical view: “The prime minister might have changed, or simply got bored of buses in 12 months’ time and so this becomes a one-off thing where some local authorities get some benefits while everyone else has just wasted all this time, effort and money on BSIPs that hasn’t realised any tangible benefits.”

“Yeah, there are challenges, but do I wish I could turn the clock back?

Never!” his own driving school with a single training vehicle to train new recruits. Late last year a second vehicle was added in a bid to grow the supply of staff.

“It’s still a struggle though - we had an instance a couple of months ago where we had four people due to come for an interview, we phoned them the previous day and they said they were coming, but on the day in question just one turned up. The number of no shows at interviews is really frustrating.

“We put our wages up by 6% in September and my view is that we’ll have to put them up again later this year. I don’t think two or three percent will cut it this time. You’re talking about adding pounds per hour in order to make the job attractive and to get people through the door. So it may be £14 per hour, £15 per house… £20 per hour, but that level of increase skews a lot of the commercial economics, certainly out in the sticks, and we don’t know if the local authority tendering budgets will be such that they will be able to cope with that sort of increase.”

STAFFING HEADWINDS

The problems of the pandemic and funding are not the only headwind for smaller operators - recruitment is proving to be problematic and DVSA is still battling through a backlog of licence applications. Hiron has a pool of potential recruits waiting to start their training but can’t as they are still waiting for their licences to be processed. His company has had to react to these issues in increasingly creative ways.

Traditionally Stephensons recruited existing licence holders to fulfil its staffing requirements, but the constraint on the supply of those is such that in 2015 Hiron took the step of starting

Despite these headwinds, Hiron believes there’s a bright future for ALBUM operators.

“Clearly we are about to go through a period where the big groups concentrate on what they do best,” he adds. “Their margins are going to get squeezed. The commercial push will be to concentrate on the high-frequency networks and corridors where they can make money and more and more of the peripheral stuff will go. SMEs are generally in a better position to pick that up.” He points to the recent sale by Arriva of its Cannock operations to independent Midland Classic.

“You could get very depressed about the state of the SME sector, but on the other hand there are huge opportunities out there,” he says. “The SME sector has always done really well at recruiting and retaining some really good people. So there’s the brainpower out there to capitalise on these opportunities. It is far, far harder now to start up on your own, but there are people out there that are clever enough to do it.

Could that extend to a new generation of talented industry managers, frustrated at working within the big groups? Hiron quit the world of the big groups when he was “let go” by former FirstGroup chief executive Sir Moir Lockhead in 2001. He went on to buy Stephensons, which was then just a small operator. Today he has over 100 vehicles.

“I think it’s far harder to start from scratch today,” he admits.

“But I think there are some opportunities out there. When I worked for First I quite often thought about how I’d like to own my own company and then every month the salary would roll in and I’d think, ‘You know, I don’t particularly enjoy this job, but that’s good money.’ It was only when Moir sacked me - just one of a line of many hundreds of managers - that was the catalyst.

“It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I think that’s a common belief amongst many ALBUM operators. It’s great fun. Yeah, there are challenges, but do I wish I could turn the clock back? Never!”

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The ALBUM Report 2022

Highlights

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2021-22 Some of the key events amongst the membership since the last ALBUM conference

JU N E LOTHIAN BUSES

SP ENERGY NETWORKS FUNDS LOTHIAN E-BUSES Alexander Dennis and BYD UK announced in July that they had supplied four zero emission BYD ADL Enviro400EV double deck buses to Lothian Buses. Their introduction has been funded as a flagship project of SP Energy Networks’ £20m Green Economy Fund.

SP Energy Networks is part of the Scottish Power group, a principal partner at the COP26 summit that was held in Glasgow later in 2021. Through the Green Economy Fund, SP Energy Networks is supporting the UK and Scottish governments’ green energy ambitions.

of its sale to Transdev Blazefield at the end of July. The company’s new owner outlined ambitious plans to grow the business.

The new brand identity and distinctive pink livery was to be progressively introduced on a route-by-route basis as part of a company-wide transformation plan over the next 18 months.

Key routes were also be branded individually to raise their profile and attract new passengers; the first to be launched is the new ‘Denby Darts’ route linking Denby Dale, Clayton West and Skelmanthorpe with Huddersfield.

Alex Hornby, chief executive of Transdev Blazefield, said his company planned to make a positive impact with the new Team Pennine identity, a new name that aims to be symbolic of Transdev’s “local and peoplefocused approach”.

Lothian Buses is using the electric buses, each of which is has seats for up to 72 passengers, on its Route 10 between Leith, Edinburgh city centre and Bonaly.

Nigel Serafini, interim managing director at Lothian Buses, said: “Across the last decade, Lothian has removed around 15,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from our carbon footprint through our fleet replacement strategies, and the introduction of Edinburgh’s first fully electric double decker buses allows us to continue on this journey.”

TRANSDEV BLAZEFIELD

HORNBY OUTLINES TEAM PENNINE GROWTH PLANS Former Arriva subsidiary Yorkshire Tiger was relaunched as ‘Team Pennine’ following the completion

AUGUST ALBUM

ALBUM WARNS ON BUS DRIVER SHORTAGES In August, fears over a shortage of bus drivers appeared to be confirmed after ALBUM, the organisation that brings together Britain’s municipal, independent and smaller group operators, wrote to buses minister Baroness Vere to highlight growing member concerns about the issue.

While the nationwide shortage of lorry drivers was well known, a combination of the fallout from both Brexit and the pandemic meant that bus operators too were also increasingly reporting problems in recruiting, training and retaining staff. ALBUM warned that the situation was such that its members believed that it

Former Arriva subsidiary Yorkshire Tiger was relaunched as ‘Team Pennine’ following the completion of its sale to Transdev Blazefield

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The ALBUM Report 2022

Lothian Buses introduced four zero emission BYD ADL Enviro400EV double deckers

would start to have a significant impact on some bus networks from September.

In its letter to Vere, ALBUM warns the minister that bus mileage from September may not be as high as it could be nor as high as is desired by operators, local transport authorities and government alike.

The organisation highlighted the shortage is as a direct result of increased competition for qualified driving staff from hauliers, couriers and supermarkets. This had already led to some bus operators offering ‘bounty payments’, sometimes in excess of £1,000 to qualified PCV drivers who take up an offer of employment.

ALBUM also reported there are problems at the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency that are exacerbating the recruitment issue.

O CTO B E R MCGILL’S

MCGILL’S URGES RENFREWSHIRE TO ‘SWITCH’ McGill’s urged residents to become “zero heroes” in October as the bus company launched its first fully electric bus route in Paisley, with a further two routes following later that month. The company’s £32.5m investment in 68 zero emission buses, supported by the Scottish Government’s Scottish Ultra Low Emissions Bus Scheme, has seen it become the largest operator of electric buses

Derby-Nottingham driver Karen Miles was named Top National Bus Driver in November

ready to go’ campaign - while also expanding the business with the purchase of Yorkshire Tiger from Arriva.

The Top National Bus Driver was named as Karen Miles from Trentbarton. The Award for Services to the Bus Industry went to James Freeman, the former chairman of ALBUM and CEO of Reading Buses, who is now chair of BRTuk. JANUARY ALBUM

FOWLES IS AWARDED AN OBE

McGill's invested in 68 zero emission buses, supported by Scottish Government funding

in Scotland.

The McGill’s 26, 23 and 38 electric routes, all branded Switch, were live by the end of October just as Glasgow prepared to host the COP26 climate summit. The company has launched a major marketing campaign to encourage more residents to make the switch from their cars, including video content starring local people and McGill’s very own animated “zero heroes.”

McGill’s Group CEO Ralph Roberts commented: “The scale of our investment truly demonstrates our commitment to the green agenda, and cements us as leaders in clean, zero emission journeys.

This is just the beginning as we look to provide more and more game-changing technology to improve air quality in our towns and cities.”

NOVEMBER UK BUS AND COACH AWARDS

ALBUM AMONGST THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS The ALBUM community of bus operators were well represented among the winners of the UK Bus Awards in November.

Recognising the difficulties both the bus and coach industries have experienced since the onset of the Covid pandemic, the UK Bus Awards and UK Coach Awards announced their winners for 2021 with special joint online awards ceremony.

Winner of the Build Back Better Award for bus was Transdev Blazefield. Judges praised the operator for its extensive positive messaging about travelling by bus - notably its ‘Clean, safe and

Former ALBUM chair and Nottingham City Transport managing director Mark Fowles who retired from the bus industry in April 2021 – was awarded an OBE for his services to the transport industry and to charity in the New Year’s Honours.

A former vice chair of the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) Bus Commission, he was also chair of CPT’s East Midlands region between 2003-05. In 2009 he was appointed to the board of Traveline UK, becoming chair in 2013. He was chair of the ALBUM independent and municipal bus grouping between 2017-19 and president of The Omnibus Society in 2018. Meanwhile, NCT is the only bus company to win UK Bus Operator of the Year an unprecedented five times.

He has also worked extensively in the charity sector, raising over £125,000 for a muscular dystrophy

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Highlights research fund.

Fowles commented: “I am pleased and delighted to receive this honour, it was a great privilege and honour to serve as managing director of Nottingham City Transport. I am proud of the company’s achievements, and of my involvement within the bus industry and I’d like to thank employees, past and present, along with friends throughout the bus industry for their support”.

Mark Fowles was awarded an OBE

battled with a crippling driver shortages.

The operator admitted that it had a vacancy rate of around 5% with a further 5% of staff unable to attend work whilst they self-isolate because of Covid-19, resulting in an increasing number of short notice cancellations to the its network.

Bus staff at the operator overwhelmingly accepted a substantial pay offer, which saw the city’s bus drivers earning amongst the highest rates in the UK outside the capital.

The new rates of pay commenced from January 30, two months ahead of the normal anniversary date. It saw the top rate increase by £1 per hour to £13.10 per hour.

NCT’s starter rate for new drivers, including during their full training period, increased to £11.32 per hour. After six months, this rises to £11.71 per hour.

CARDIFF BUS

A QUARTER OF CARDIFF FLEET NOW ZERO EMISSION In one of the first major launch events since the onset of the pandemic, Cardiff Bus revealed its new fleet of 36 electric buses at a special event in the Welsh capital in January.

The introduction of the Yutong E12 zero-emission buses is part of the operator’s strategy to reduce emissions and air pollution in Cardiff. Their introduction, which has been made possible thanks to a successful bid for funding from the Department for Transport’s Ultra-Low Emissions Bus Scheme, means that around a quarter of the council-owned operator’s fleet is now zero emission.

Paul Dyer, the municipal’s managing director, said the introduction of the new fleet was a huge step in the operator’s goal

NOTTINGHAM CITY TRANSPORT

PAY AWARD SEES NCT TOP BUS EARNINGS LEAGUE In January, Nottingham City Transport announced significant pay increases for driving staff and new starters that made them amongst the highest earners in the country outside London.

The council-owned bus operator announced introduced a temporary timetable from January 10 that a Saturday timetable adopted on weekdays and the tough decision to suspend the entire NightBus network as it

Cardiff Bus introduced 36 Yutong E12 electric buses on its network in the Welsh capital

Nottingham City Transport announced significant pay increases for driving staff

to reach a fully zero emission bus fleet while providing a first class service to passengers.

One of the new vehicles features a special livery that celebrates 120 years of the council-owned bus operator.

IPSWICH BUSES

SUFFOLK AWARD FOR IPSWICH BUSES HERO Bus driver Steve Harvey received The Suffolk Award in January in recognition of his outstanding service to the community during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Harvey has been supporting the vaccination bus from the start, working weekends and undergoing additional training to take on the role of an administrator and infection control lead.

The award was presented by the High Sheriff of Suffolk, Edward Creasy, who also had high praise for Ipswich Buses.

In March 2021 the company converted one of its fleet into a mobile vaccination unit at no charge to the NHS, stripping out much of the original interior and fitting it with electricity, three Perspex booths, a discussion area and a bed to treat any patients who might feel unwell. A second bus was converted in September.

Between them the buses have driven the distance from Ipswich to Hong Kong, clocking up 5,945 miles roving around Suffolk and north east Essex with just over 320,000 vaccinations administered on board. The bus has also supported the vaccination

Ipswich Buses driver Steve Harvey was named as the recipient of a Suffolk Award

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The ALBUM Report 2022

Highlights

Municipal operators Newport Transport and Warrington's Own Buses both aimed to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine with buses that sport the country's colours

programme in Norfolk.

General Manager, Ipswich Buses, Stephen Bryce, said: “We have been delighted to do this for both our local community in Ipswich and then work further afield.”

is perhaps in the unique position of owning its own bus company, Warrington’s Own Buses, and two solar farms, near York and Hull (with a third under construction near Cirencester). The plan is for these assets to combine so that the town’s local bus network uses 100% renewable energy.

In October 2021, the Department for Transport announced that Warrington Borough Council would receive a £21.4m ‘fastrack’ grant from the government’s Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme.

This will enable Warrington’s Own Buses to replace its entire fleet with 120 electric buses.

Warrington’s Own Buses was already getting a brand new bus

so that they in turn can equally show their support. We are in discussions with the council and other partners to see if there are other ways that the company can help.”

WARRINGTON’S OWN BUSES

M A RC H NEWPORT TRANSPORT / WARRINGTON’S OWN BUSES

ALBUM OPERATORS BACK UKRAINE As a gesture of solidarity with Ukraine, council-owned bus operator Newport Transport, supported by its supplier Pennine Signs, branded one of its double decker buses to the colours of the Ukrainian flag in March. Many of the company’s employees originate from Eastern Europe.

“Newport Transport are proud to launch their support and solidarity for the people of Ukraine,” said Newport Transport managing director Scott Pearson.

“This bus will hopefully act as a reminder not only to do what we all can to help, but also the importance of democracy and peace.”

Newport Transport is proud of its multicultural and diversity with many of its staff members originating from Eastern Europe Poland, Hungary, Romania.

Council-owned Warrington’s Own Buses also unveiled a Ukraine-designed bus. Managing director Ben Wakerley, said: “It may only be a simple gesture, but I hope in a small way that our Ukraine bus can help bring people’s attention to the conflict,

WARRINGTON’S BUSES TO BECOME SOLAR SHOWCASE Warrington will soon become a showcase for green transport in the UK and beyond, it was reported in March. The Cheshire town is getting a fleet of 120 brand new electric buses - and the plan is for them to run exclusively on solar power.

Warrington Borough Council

Uno celebrated its 30th birthday. A special booklet and badge was produced for staff

depot thanks to funding from the government’s Getting Building Fund and the Towns Deal.

Ben Wakerley says that it’s a huge project for an SME. “We are really punching above our weight here,” he told Passenger Transport.

UNO

UNO CELEBRATES 30 YEARS IN HERTFORDSHIRE Uno, the bus company owned by the University of Hertfordshire, celebrated 30 years of running buses in Hertfordshire in March.

Founded in 1992, and originally running under the name ‘University Bus’, Uno now runs over 100 buses in three counties along with buses under contract to Transport for London. Its headquarters is in Hatfield, the same town that its university owners is based.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary, one of its single deck buses has been given a fresh new look with a special ’30 year’ logo on the outside and timeline on the inside of key events in the company’s history.

University Bus was transformed in to Uno in 2005, as the company was growing in the county and serving more local residents and visitors, as well as the staff and student community from the university. Buses have been painted in the bright pink and purple colours ever since, easily recognisable on the county’s roads.

A commemorative booklet, telling Uno’s story over the years, and pin badge have been produced for all members of staff.

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We aspire to lead the way not just in our operating area in the South West, but nationally. Our membership of CILT(UK) supports this and adds real value to our journey. We strongly believe in partnerships and innovation within the sector and being active Corporate Members of the CILT helps us build meaningful relationships and benchmark our organisation against others in the industry.

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ciltuk.org.uk/corporate I 01536 740128 I chris.ruane@ciltuk.org.uk Busmark advert 2022.indd 1

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The ALBUM Report 2022

The passengers are returning: Bus use in Blackpool is now over 75% of pre-Covid levels while tram use is at 83%

SPRING HAS SPRUNG FOR BLACKPOOL TRANSPORT We meet Jane Cole, managing director of Blackpool Transport, host of this year’s ALBUM Conference, and hear why she is feeling optimistic about the company’s future

pring is in the air and Jane Cole is enthusiastic about the green shoots that are starting to appear before her. The Blackpool Transport boss is now forecasting “a really prosperous and interesting future”.

Covid saw public transport use plummet as people were urged to find other ways of travelling during the peak of the pandemic.

However, in Blackpool they are now returning in greater numbers than in many parts of the country.

At the time of our meeting in late March, bus passenger numbers in Blackpool were over 75% of what they were in the equivalent period of 2019. Tram use has recovered even faster at 83%. On some days tram use has even reached 123% of 2019 levels!

Blackpool’s relatively low car

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ownership meant that scope for a car-led recovery was always going to be limited. At the same time, as a destination for tourism, Blackpool Transport is a beneficiary of the relatively buoyant market for leisure travel.

Concessionary travel has risen as older people visit the town and use their free travel passes.

“Hopefully by this year we will be back at about 90% of 2019 and I hope by the end of 2023 we are back to where we were in 2019,” says Cole. “Then we can start seeing growth beyond that.”

There are other reasons to be positive. Gauge testing has just begun on the extension of the tramway from the seafront to Blackpool North railway station - a missing link that will encourage greater use of public transport among holiday-makers,

day-trippers and other visitors.

Furthermore, the council-owned company is buzzing about going all-electric. Thanks to a £19.6m grant from the government’s Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme, announced in March, the entire Blackpool Transport fleet will be replaced by a new cohort of 115 electric buses.

Jane Cole: confident about the future

“Suddenly we are going, ‘flippin’ ‘eck, the horizon’s looking really busy,” says Cole. “It’s looking prosperous and we’ve got an opportunity to do what we did five to six years ago and that is to transform the business once again.

“There’s a real excitement in the business at the moment. We know what we want to do and we’ve got an idea about how we are going to do it.”

GOING ELECTRIC

Cole expects that the ZEBRA funding will enable Blackpool Transport’s bus fleet to be replaced with completely brand new electric vehicles by 2026.

Blackpool Transport already has a youthful fleet, with vehicles ranging between three and six years old. The company’s plan was never to have a vehicle more than five years old. But a rapid transition to electric is preferred, with Cole and her colleagues wishing to avoid having a hybrid fleet of diesel and electric vehicles.

“From a business point of view, if we don’t do it now and take this opportunity, we could end up never having the chance to do this,” Cole explains. “So it’s a big

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Jane Cole leap of faith, it’s a big risk, and I get that, but when you’re gifted £19.6m you know that you’re off the starting blocks. So why wouldn’t you take this risk?”

The decarbonisation of the bus fleet, alongside the electric tramway, will help Blackpool Borough Council with its goal to reach net zero by 2030.

Cole adds: “It’s going to help us to modernise again to reduce costs, to make us more productive and to shout from the rooftops that we are now carbon neutral, which is ethically the right thing to do.”

She predicts that the government will push the industry to decarbonise at pace and she believes that her fellow operators need to have a strategy in place for transitioning away from fossil fuels. Her belief is that they will be rewarded by a younger generation who are more conscious of environmental issues and cannot afford to buy cars and pay insurance for them.

LOCAL PRIDE Like many of the municipal and independent operators that make up the ALBUM community, Blackpool Transport excels at local engagement.

Blackpool is a place where the community has a good track record of coming together and working in innovative ways to improve their town.

And the bus company is at the very heart of that.

It’s for this reason that prime minister Boris Johnson and his levellingup secretary, Michael Gove, chose to launch their levelling-up white paper in February with a visit to the company’s new tram depot. “He was very impressed,” says Cole of the prime minister’s reaction to seeing the facility and hearing about the operation’s progress.

She adds: “We have been very lucky that government have taken an interest in Blackpool. I think they are doing that because they see some examples of really good practice.”

A Lancastrian who has now headed Blackpool Transport for seven years, Cole is very familiar with the region and the issues that are important to it.

“I think the unique part of being an MD for a municipal is the fact that we can scan the horizon,” she says. “We can have the local relationships.

So, for example, I am the president of the North West Lancashire Chamber of Commerce... So I understand the business perspective of the town. I work very closely with the council and all the other businesses because I’m on the Blackpool Business Leadership Forum... I sit on the Future Prosperity Board for Fleetwood. I work very closely with Fylde. We have a great relationship with Lancashire County Council. So we are able to do a load of horizon scanning.”

From where Cole is sitting that horizon is looking bright. The past two years have been tough for everyone, but the passengers are returning and she believes that Blackpool Transport can look forward to a period of growth and prosperity.

BUILDING BACK

Blackpool Transport has reconfigured its pricing to respond to a post-Covid world where travel behaviour have changed.

For example, tickets for young people now cover anyone up to the age of 22, offering substantial savings. So 24 hours of travel now costs £3.70 for a 21-year-old compared to the £5.50 previously.

Unsurprisingly, this change has resulted in growth.

Meanwhile, the company’s new ‘Flexi10’ ticket is targeted at those travelling to work less frequently.

It offers 10 single journey tickets for the price of eight.

“We know that everybody is not using the bus on a seven-day ticket or monthly pass, so we’ve got to make sure that we react and respond to the needs the market,” Cole explains.

“Our strategy really is that we are just going to get under the skin of locals, residents, commuters, visitors - different demographics and segments - and find out what it is that they really want from bus and tram travel and make sure we tailor our products to meet that demand.

“And yeah, we may see a dip where we have to look at our profit margins and we have to give some stuff away to start with, because

Boris Johnson launched the levelling-up white paper with a visit to Blackpool Transport

I think the most difficult thing is going to be to get people to migrate who are current car owners.”

Visitors have been identified as a key growth market. Cole believes that local people are already familiar with their locally-owned bus and tram company and are proud of it (92% of its customers were ‘satisfied’ in 2019 Bus Passenger Survey by Transport Focus, compared to 89% across England).

“We want to make sure that

“There’s a real excitement in the business at the moment. We know what we want to do and we’ve got an idea about how we are going to do it”

when people are coming to Blackpool as a visitor that they understand that Blackpool Transport are here and we provide really good, ethical, clean transport to get them around,” she says. “So our marketing really has to win the hearts and minds of people before they arrive… We’ve got to make sure that we engage them.”

For example, the company is talking to train operator Northern about seamless ticketing, with new add-on fares in addition to the existing PlusBus scheme. It’s also working with the coach operators.

Cole served as president of the Confederation of Passenger Transport during 2021, the first women to do so. During this period she lobbied government on behalf of these companies but she believes that they got a “bloody raw deal” during the pandemic, receiving comparatively little help as their revenues collapsed. To support them in a personal way, she and Andrew McGuinness, CPT’s regional manager for the North of England, took a coach holiday to Durham with Bibby’s of Ingleton. She was impressed to find ambassadors approach the coach and provide information about the city as well as onward travel by bus.

“It’s about informing the customers when they get here what they can do,” says Cole. “[We have] a ticket for £5.50 for 24 hours of travel, you couldn’t get into an attraction in Blackpool for that!”

The company is working with Alex Warner of Tracsis Transport Consultancy to find ways to market the bus as an attraction in its own right. The company will try some experimental ‘pop-up’ marketing and if it’s successful Cole says that the company will go “all out” with its marketing next year.

“There’s tons that you can do.

We want to try and start marketing away from the promenade because our trams are full.”

Concluding her thoughts on marketing, Cole adds: “It’s thinking about innovative ways and different things. Because every town and every region is different. What we do here will not suit Manchester, it will not suit Durham. We’ve got to find that sweet spot for Blackpool that really entices people to want to do things with Blackpool Transport.”

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The ALBUM Report 2022

SOLVING THE PEOPLE PUZZLE Shane Grindey, marketing and commercial manager at Blackpool Transport, on the challenge of recruiting and retaining staff

ur industry has always relied on people, lots of them in fact.

Whilst that may change in the future if technology decides that humans in mobility and transport are surplus to requirements, our need to recruit and retain talent at scale will be ever present for a very long time.

I’d also like to think that as an industry we’re pretty good at recruiting staff. We’ve got a lot of driving jobs and, by and large, an offer of job security which is compelling in comparison to many other industries. In Blackpool the lure of guaranteed full-time employment is often enough when compared to other seasonal roles which terminate between November and February.

In some regions, particularly our cities, the hourly rate of pay alone has often been a good enough magnet to attract the volume of people that we have needed.

Although attractive in the short term, rate of pay isn’t always enough to keep people in the job they’re employed to do. For some, that’s all that matters and that’s completely fine, but for many there has been a significant shift change in the primary drivers when looking for employment.

Long gone it seems, are the days where a guaranteed weekly wage is enough to appease the majority of a workforce. And for good reason, I’d say. We’re working in a world where information is the most accessible it has ever been, comparisons between what does and what should make a person happy are ever present at the tap of a thumb, and aspirations as a result are higher than ever.

I say for good reason, because it’s a great prospect that as human beings we have evolved to strive to do more, learn more, achieve more - but at what cost to our industry?

It’s no surprise that our

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Millennials (born 1981-1995) and those lucky enough to belong to Generation Z (born 1996 onwards) are much more driven to constantly learn than previous generations with such easy access to information. Put simply, this means they’re much more likely to want to transfer their learnings into meaningful actions, as well as develop new skills and reap the intrinsic rewards associated with it.

Put that into a public transport context and we can begin to see why recruiting and retaining our staff is so important now, with many more challenges particularly in how we retain our workforce yet to come.

NO SIMPLE ANSWER

There can be no simple answer, but there are some approaches we can all apply, not just to appease a generation based on research, but because they are the things we should all be doing as responsible employers. Much of what the research tells us is anchored around things such as psychological safety, better diversity and inclusion, and having the opportunity to learn and be challenged - I defy anyone who might suggest these aren’t all positive topics for us to be addressing in any case.

In Blackpool we saw the same ‘mass exit’ as the majority of industry colleagues that I’ve spoken to, and there’s little shame in that - but we must learn from

Rate of pay isn’t always enough to keep people in the job they’re employed to do

it. We lost around one sixth of our workforce during the summer and autumn of 2021. It wasn’t as though we weren’t aware of an impending problem, but it was certainly enough to make us sit up, listen, and start to look at how we begin to take action.

We tried the obvious in the short term - spent more on recruitment advertising, increased our physical presence at recruitment fairs, introduced payment incentives and so on.

It worked, kind of. But we knew we had to do more to begin to see the benefit for years to come.

In September 2021 we carried out our annual staff survey and gathered the highest response in years. It told us lots that we already knew, but it also told us a lot about where our priorities must be focused for the short and medium term future.

And so it was time for change

“From day one we want everybody to understand what they’re contributing towards and what their role is in our ever evolving challenge”

and at the time of writing, we’re still only on the cusp of getting stuck in to the work which we believe will really start to make a difference to how we retain our frontline staff and attract new talent. Pleasingly, it doesn’t begin with anything radical, or anything which can’t be transferred to another transport operator, but it does begin with a willingness to look at and do things a little differently.

Generation Z, or ‘zoomers’ as they are also aptly known as, are both our customers and employees now and in the future so it makes complete sense to start with addressing what we know about their primary needs. After all, if we can start to get that right, the rest of our customers and colleagues are certainly going to benefit too.

So where to begin? How we position our brand as a favourable

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Recruitment & retention

employer is so important in a world where access to jobs is easier than ever. We’re now competing in a landscape where working from home is the norm and commuting between towns or cities is still an attractive proposition. What sets us apart is our ability to showcase the benefits beyond our take home pay. Prospective colleagues want to know how dedicated our organisation is to diversity and inclusion; they want to know how they’re going to feel valued and part of a worthwhile cause; and they want to know what’s in it for them - and it’s on us to give them that information.

For Blackpool, it starts with a fresh approach to how we showcase our opportunities and induct our new staff members.

From day one we want everybody to understand what they’re contributing towards and what their role is in our ever evolving

challenge, but saying it isn’t enough. We need to be able to back it up at every touch point across our business with supervisors and managers who can actively listen to how people feel and respond to their needs.

That all starts with a coaching led approach to leadership, where our managers are people-people and their duties extend beyond a task based programme of work aiming to fulfil our operational and legal obligations. Easier said than done, but we can’t and won’t shy away from the importance of taking care of our staff as people.

We’re all too aware of the mental health crisis, but we need to be looking at meaningful actions which protect the mental wellbeing of our teams.

Our industry is outstanding at ensuring the physical safety of our staff (and customers), and amazing work is taking place up and down the country to extend this across all aspects of health.

If we don’t however continue to make progress based on the moral reasons for doing so, we must do it for the benefit of retaining our staff and keeping them happy, healthy, and present in our business.

I had been determined not to mention Covid-19 but there’s an undeniable impact (amongst many others, of course) that it has had on importance of work:life balance. People have reprioritised what’s most important to them and work:life balance is certainly sitting towards the top of the list for many. It’s also probably one of our most difficult challenges when we consider that many of us operate a near 24 hour operation,

“We’re now competing in a landscape where working from home is the norm”

From day one we want everybody to understand what they’re contributing towards

but we have to start to consider how we adapt our approach to rosters and shifts, without simply ending our services at 7pm in the evening.

It’s also about making sure we get the right people in our business first time around.

Remember what I said about money? It’s a great short term attractor but it’s seldom enough to outweigh the burden of working in a role where the shift patterns simply don’t meet your intrinsic priorities. And this is the cycle that we need to break - recruit train - repeat. Right now many of us simply need people behind a wheel but I fear that there may be a mouth-watering hidden cost if we don’t spend the time on getting the right people in the first place.

LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT

Our final focus in Blackpool is on providing opportunities for learning and development. We can’t hide away from the fact that bus driving is a front line transactional role and whilst there are fantastic opportunities in our industry, the odds are against many of those who might look to learn and progress up the hierarchy. Satisfying a growing need amongst many then, who want to continue to learn and be challenged is going to be difficult, but it doesn’t always have to be skills or course based learning.

We’re trying to identify pathways for each individual to learn or experience in other ways which are still enriching to their overall role. Call it the ‘wrap around’ learning if you like, but providing opportunities to experience and learn new things in addition to role specific training is only going to benefit us, and the customer.

Of course, there is no one size fits all approach but I look forward to hearing about the great work taking place across the country and I’m sure we can all take learnings and share experiences from one another over the next couple of days. If there’s one thing that nobody can argue, it’s that ALBUM members really do pull together to help each other at the drop of a hat and I’m sure we will all benefit from the conversation that follow in the weeks and months.

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The ALBUM Report 2022

ZEvolution: Alexander Dennis has supplied 1,000 electric buses and will soon launch its second-generation hydrogen fuel cell bus

CLOSING THE VEHICLE GAP Bus operators are readying themselves to deliver on the UK Government’s ambitions for the transition to net zero - and Britain’s leading bus manufacturer, Alexander Dennis, is ready to help, as president and managing director Paul Davies and group engineering director Chris Gall explain

lexander Dennis has long been at the forefront of innovation in the bus industry and has an impressive track record of bringing low, ultra low and most recently zero emission technologies to market.

The company firmly believes in continuing to work with bus operators to shape the transition to zero-emission mobility Leading the ZEvolution, as Alexander Dennis calls it in a slogan shared with its parent company, NFI Group.

“We don’t innovate for innovation’s sake,” says president and managing director, Paul Davies, who took the helm at Alexander Dennis during the pandemic after 20 years in Hong Kong as head of Asia-Pacific operations. “Bus operators across the country are making commitments to reduce emissions and meet the government’s ambitions on the road to net zero, and they need a reliable partner to support them on this journey.

A

Alexander Dennis’s Paul Davies (right) and Chris Gall

emission bus range evolves.

Already, Alexander Dennis has 1,000 battery-electric buses - built in partnership with BYD - on the road and is poised to launch its second-generation hydrogen fuel cell bus later this year, having successfully won the Liverpool City Region’s commercial tender for 20 double deck buses.

Davies hints at more to come: “We’re never standing still.

“We have been working in partnership with our customers since 1895, designing, engineering and building buses and coaches right here in Britain. We understand the market needs from our rich history in Britain and always involve our customers in the process to ensure the optimal design.”

This is an ongoing process as the Alexander Dennis zero

Coming out of the pandemic, the pace of transition is accelerating.

We have been delivering marketleading electric buses for close to six years now - it’s time to take the next steps on our zero emissions journey.”

Tasked with delivering the next steps is the company’s new group engineering director, Chris Gall, who joined Alexander Dennis from Jaguar Land Rover last year after an extensive career in the global automotive industry.

“Electric vehicle technology continues to move at a rapid pace and our customers are benefitting from the constant improvement to systems and capabilities,” says Gall.

“Our electric buses have already gone through successive battery generations, each time increasing the amount of energy stored and the efficiency with which it is charged and discharged.

“Ferrous batteries are probably coming to a plateau in their development, although they will remain a very cost-effective option. Other chemistries now have more potential for improvements in energy density, so that is what we will be adding to our offering to allow bus operators the option to choose what works best for their application.

“Of course, that’s not an easy choice to make for a vehicle that will run in heavy-duty service for a decade or two, which is why we model the expected duty cycles to identify the right levers. We’re not just bringing our own expertise at Alexander Dennis to the table when we do this, but we constantly share knowledge throughout NFI Group subsidiaries which allows us to develop a wealth of understanding with further specifications and use cases.”

It’s not just batteries that are improving, though, and Alexander Dennis has keenly observed the emergence of a new generation of electric motors and drive systems.

The upcoming Enviro400FCEV second-generation hydrogen bus will be the first to employ the Voith Electrical Drive System, or VEDS. Designed specifically for zero emission buses, this new system packs a punch for power

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ADL output in a small unit, making it ideal for double deck buses where on-board space is at a premium.

Chris Gall explains: “VEDS gives us a platform for global application with a single core system that doesn’t just fit hydrogen buses, but also works for battery-electric vehicles even in such arduous operating territory as Hong Kong, where we will be using it for the fleet of Enviro500EV we are building for KMB. “There is definitely more we can do with this system that will help us close the vehicle gap for our bus operator partners to deliver on the government’s net zero ambitions as well as their own commitments.”

One thing that isn’t going to change though is Alexander Dennis’s focus on and approach to designing, building and supporting its vehicles in Britain.

This is essential to allow the customer to be closely involved in the specification of their vehicles, from direct interaction with the company’s engineers on new interior features that will further boost patronage growth to enabling in-line visits at the production stage. During the pandemic, Alexander Dennis recreated the experience using the latest video and VR link-ups, but Paul Davies is glad the business

can welcome its partners in person again: “Nothing matches the way you communicate when you have everyone in the same room. If you design and build the bus on the other side of the globe, customers will never be part of the process in the way they are at Alexander Dennis.”

Paul Davies also sees a wider

ZERO EMISSION BUSES ON SHOW IN BLACKPOOL

is fitted with comfortable ADL SmartSeats with integrated seatback amenity consoles, some of which are arranged around tables that extend to provide plenty of space for passengers to work en route. USB and wireless charging are

On display at the 2022 ALBUM Conference are Alexander Dennis’s latest electric bus demonstrators.

The single deck BYD ADL Enviro200EV and double deck BYD ADL Enviro400EV, both built to a high specification with attractive interiors set to wow passengers, are stopping at the conference venue in Blackpool between in-service trials and demonstrations around the country.

The single decker is to a flexible 10.2-metre length that fits narrow town streets just as much as country lanes. With a 348kWh battery, it offers the market’s highest energy storage for an electric single decker of this length.

Like its single deck stablemate, the 10.8-metre double decker

obligation to build in Britain: “We have a responsibility to our 2,000 team members and several times as many people employed in our extensive domestic supply chain. Investment in our buses and coaches is an investment in our communities, not just in Scarborough or Falkirk where the vehicles are built, and it is vital that government funding supports a vibrant bus manufacturing industry that will deliver the zero emission buses the country needs on its way to net zero.”

Alexander Dennis is ready to play its part. It has the expertise, the people and is working on the next generation of products.

Supporting the transition to net zero

Alexander Dennis builds buses in Falkirk and Scarborough, supporting communities

available at all seats.

Flooring combining wood effect with a grass motif, and a sky-print ceiling, complement the attractive lime and cobalt livery to highlight the electric buses’ zero emission credentials.

The vehicle interiors highlight the electric buses’ zero emission credentials

Jacqueline Anderson: 'active role’

CHAMPIONING DIVERSITY Alexander Dennis recently joined the UK’s Women in Transport network as the first bus manufacturer to become a corporate member. The company will champion diversity, equity and inclusion in the bus industry through sponsorship of this working group, while providing networking and professional development opportunities for its team members.

Women in Transport is a notfor-profit that empowers women to maximise their potential.

Membership - which is open to any Alexander Dennis team member - provides access to a varied events programme, networking opportunities, annual mentoring, a leadership development programme and the All Party Parliamentary Group for women in transport.

Alexander Dennis will sponsor the Diversity & Inclusion Bus Group, which seeks to promote the benefits of diversity and inclusion and improve perceptions of the bus industry while attracting a diverse workforce which represents the industry’s customer base. The group meets around four times a year, progressing various workstreams and sharing learnings and expertise.

Group marketing director Jacqueline Anderson said: “At Alexander Dennis, we share the transport sector’s ambition to better reflect the country’s demographics in our team. The fantastic work done by Women in Transport resonates strongly with us and we look forward to taking an active role in this vital network "We encourage our team members to engage with the opportunities offered by Women in Transport, and hope they will be a further benefit as we seek to attract the skills and talent we need to lead the transition to zero-emission mobility.”

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The ALBUM Report 2022

Giles Fearnley: ‘I am confident that - with the right support and vision - we’ll see every urban area support a thriving bus network’

THE MAN HELPING US TO ‘BUS BACK BETTER’ Giles Fearnley, a senior consultant at Tracsis Transport Consultancy, explains how he is supporting the sector as it navigates its way through strange times

stepped down as FirstGroup UK Bus MD over a year ago now. One thing has not changed since I started 50 years ago and that is the dedication and commitment from all levels to deliver for the customer and to do a great job. That’s a phenomenal foundation for the industry as we set out our stall for the future. I was approached to work with Tracsis Transport Consultancy last year to further develop its products and services. They’ve kept me busy - I’ve been working on long-term strategy, customer propositions, Bus Service Improvement Plans, and ZEBRA bids - and it’s given me the chance to make a difference when our sector needs it the most.

I

BSIPs, many are yet to be funded.

It’s tough out there and there may be further pain before we achieve a set of sustainable bus networks, especially if funding falls short. Yet at the same time, the bus has a huge role to play in cleaning up our cities and uncapped fare increases are not a viable alternative to external funding if we are to encourage people out of their cars.

The other dark cloud is the driver shortage. Although somewhat masked over the past couple of years by the pandemic, this is certainly impacting service reliability and cancellations.

That’s not a route to success when trying to attract more passengers, but nor, too, is the alternative, if higher prices are needed to

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

These are strange times. Whilst the global pandemic may have decimated demand (temporarily at least), public transport is enjoying a funding renaissance while being presented as the saviour of net zero. That should make me really excited about the future; I certainly want to be!

But in all the euphoria, I’m increasingly nervous.

On one hand, I’ve never seen such an understanding by politicians (both locally and nationally) of the opportunities of bus. On the other hand, the industry is facing unprecedented uncertainty, and for all the great ideas and aspirations contained in

enable greater investment in staff recruitment and retention. Indeed, if we are to deliver government objectives and encourage ongoing public investment, the industry needs to find innovative ways to cut costs and generate sustainable passenger growth. Whilst our sector has a track record of reacting quickly to challenges, we will have to work very hard to come out the right way up.

REALISING OUR POTENTIAL

It’s important for us to realise the full potential of the sector by taking a realistic and sustainable approach: there’s no place for short term dreams with no long term financial benefits. Since starting at Tracsis, I’ve been able to work with the industry and local authorities to help devise strategies that ensure we emerge from the pandemic in a better shape. We’ve pulled together a team of senior colleagues, indeed household names in the sector, to shape our consultancy proposition to help the industry on some of its strategic challenges.

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Tracsis I want to see ambition and realism. That means sharing risks appropriately, but also a commitment to delivering plans, so that innovation and boldness can thrive within the funding framework, not be blown apart within weeks. But that also means taking a medium to long term view of success, especially where infrastructure improvements are part of the strategy.

CUSTOMER FOCUS

I joined the bus industry 14 years before deregulation and have seen first-hand how reliance on funding can shift the focus away from the customer. Back then, the local authorities effectively determined the network and timetables, which meant the key priority for local bus companies was to ensure the funding they received covered the cost of running the service.

There was no incentive to generate additional custom which meant subsidies increased as passenger numbers fell. Deregulation - for all its faults - marked the end of guaranteed funding, which meant your survival relied on meeting customer needs As we head into a new era for the sector, it’s important to learn lessons from the past. We mustn’t allow the promise of funding to make us complacent; it must be used as a catalyst for enhancing customer experience further. The retail, technology and leisure industries continue to raise the bar in this area, and customer expectations along with it. And while the bus sector has made a lot of progress in recent years, there’s never been a more important time to shine.

It’s certainly one of the areas I’ve been working on with clients as we emerge from the pandemic, as it offers some real ‘quick wins’. Many of the niggles that customers rightly had about their bus experience are quickly becoming areas we can control far more effectively through advances in technology and open data. That includes tools to address punctuality and reliability through reduced boarding times, crowding data and dependable real time information.

One of the products that I’ve been excited about and which I used at First, was Tracsis’ root and branch Customer Experience

“It’s important for us to realise the full potential of the sector by taking a realistic and sustainable approach”

Health Assessments which are led

by Alex Warner, who is speaking at the ALBUM Conference, and our customer service commentators.

These are the most microscopic ‘deep dives’ of the end-to-end customer proposition, examining the quality of delivery at each touchpoint and the inputs back at the ranch, in terms of internal governance of customer service, employee engagement, culture and much more, that drive the end experience. Alex and the team also undertake customer and non-user research, which combined with the Health Assessments, helps them work with companies to create their Customer Service Strategy and then with local management teams to develop action plans.

These ‘deep dives’ are an excellent metric to measure the ongoing performance of the customer proposition. Indeed, in parts of the country, the outputs have been used to create brand new brands and service propositions, of which we have played a key role in their implementation.

was an uphill struggle against the glamour of rail and air. However, as we’re now seeing in our Executive Search and Selection business, the increased profile of buses at both a national and local government level, together with a greater focus on the journey net zero, is helping to reposition the sector as an attractive, interesting and forward-thinking career option, not only aiding recruitment, but bringing much-needed diversity to the industry as well.

There, of course, are challenges in recruitment and not just in terms of retaining and attracting drivers. Key specialisms such as engineering, network planning and scheduling continue to be difficult to recruit and new ones such as digital marketing aren’t easy too, whilst bidding - something we’ve been heavily involved in - is just around the corner with all the focus now about Enhanced Partnerships and franchising. We have, though, made breakthroughs, one such being the Scheduling division that Tracsis has set up to support bus operators, drawing on our long-standing expertise in this area in rail. No longer does finding an experienced, commercially driven, customer-centric scheduler seem like a holy grail.

The industry can do so much

IDENTIFYING, RECOGNISING AND DEVELOPING TALENT

Celebrating the industry and its people is something I very much support and I was honoured to act as a judge for Passenger Transport’s ‘Rising Stars’, which was sponsored by Tracsis. Recognising outstanding individuals and teams plays a vital part in the future success of the industry, not only by keeping people engaged but by highlighting their achievements to a wider audience.

It’s not so long ago that buses were the poor relation in transport terms, and attracting new talent

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Giles Fearnley joined Tracsis Transport Consultancy to further strengthen the team of consultants in early 2021. He has 50 years of experience in the transport sector. He led the management buy-out of Blazefield Holdings and as executive chairman was instrumental in transforming it into one of the UK’s most customer-centric bus companies, operating Lancashire and Yorkshire. Giles has had two spells in Rail - firstly as chief executive of Prism Rail plc until its sale to National Express in 2000. Subsequently he was executive chairman of Grand Central until its sale to Arriva Group in 2011.

In that year he was appointed as managing director of FirstGroup’s UK & Ireland Bus Division, a role he undertook until November 2020. He has also been chairman of the Association of Train Operating Companies and the Confederation of Passenger Transport and is currently the non-executive chair of Dillistone, a leading software provider for recruitment businesses.

more to identify, nurture and develop talent. At Tracsis, not only do we recruit specialists and senior managers, but we also provide training, coaching and development. In everything we do, we are constantly looking to ensure that the industry is developing teams.

We’ve created and delivered, for instance, ‘managing customer service’ training for bus company boards and their senior executives, so that they have the right approach and arrangements in place to shift the dial and move their company from being customer-focused, to customer driven and ultimately customer centric. So too, we’re training for depot allocators, supervisors, engineers and HQ folk and, of course, we have our renowned ‘Delight the Customer’ training for drivers and hosts.

The challenge for the sector is to re-define itself in many ways, to break down traditional ways of doing things, moving recruitment, training, development and performance management from being operationally focused to one that is head-on embracing the need to constantly ‘add value’ for customers, generating trip frequency and advocacy.

A NEW DAWN?

You wait ages and then three turn up at once, as the old adage goes.

With so much going on in the industry right now, it does feel like we are suddenly awash with opportunities. The potential to create something great is within our grasp, but that ambition and innovation need to be realistic and pragmatic. We need clear road space, we need assured funding for BSIPs and we need Enhanced Partnerships where all parties are wholly committed to the common purpose of delivering for the passenger and, through their actions, delivering sustained volume growth.

I may be nervous about the journey ahead, but I am confident that - with the right support and vision - we’ll see every urban area support a thriving bus network, moving large volumes of people on frequent services, efficiently and at competitive fares. And I look forward to playing my own small part in making it happen.

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Better journeys for Better journeys for bus passengers

bus passengers

Transport Focus can help local transport Transport Focus is helping put passengers authorities put passengers at the heart of at the heart of the National Bus Strategy the National Bus Strategy and Bus Service and Bus ServicePlans.

Improvement Plans.

Improvement By using Transport Focus research, including a new Transport Focus including newwill version version of the Bus research, Passenger Survey,awe give of our Bus Passenger Survey, can give authorities detailed local transport authorities and bus operators detailed, comparable,benchmarked benchmarked passenger passenger feedback. comparable, feedback.

Our expert advice can help provide best practice Our expert advisors can help provide best practice guidance guidanceon: on:

passenger on bus service ● •setting targetsrepresentation for journey times, reliability, improvementand plans improvements customer satisfaction • setting targets for journey times, reliability ● developing a Passenger Charter improvements and customer satisfaction ● •promoting theapassenger developing Passengerinterest Charterin local bus •partnerships promoting the passenger interest in local bus partnerships. ● guidance on putting together Enhanced Partnership Plans.

Our new best practice toolkit on passenger All of the guidance we’ve published, along with the briefings we held on them, representation on Bus Service Improvement Plans can be found at www.transportfocus.org.uk/national-bus-strategy. is available online at www.transportfocus.org.uk

To fiTo nd find out out more about how wewe can more about how canhelp helpyou, you, speak to Linda McCord, Senior Stakeholder speak to Mike Bartram, policy advisor: Manager: linda.mccord@transportfocus.org.uk mike.bartram@transportfocus.org.uk

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18/04/2022 13:57

The ALBUM Report 2022

Transport Focus

SETTING THE AGENDA FOR BUS REFORM Transport Focus is providing evidence-based support to ensure that every pound spent on improving bus services hits the target and delivers better services for passengers

ransport Focus is playing a central role representing bus passengers in Bus Back Better, the government’s first National Bus Strategy.

We were pleased to note its high ambitions were rooted in the passenger priorities research we carried out in 2019.

As an evidence-based consumer organisation we have focused on improving local bus services up and down the country.

As part of this we have: n carried out robust research on the priorities of users and non-users for improving bus services at a national level; n many years of data on bus passengers’ satisfaction with local bus services; n researched young people’s experiences and attitudes to local bus services; n and reported on best practice in complaint handling and consulting the public on bus network reviews.

We have applied this research to the development of guidance documents and supporting webinars. These are designed to help authorities and operators ensure their Bus Service Improvement Plans and Enhanced Partnerships reflect the passenger interest.

The attendance at our webinars has consistently been over a hundred people and rising (148 at our most recent one).

This shows the value we have added to the decisions being made by local authorities and operators. We have also worked particularly closely with the alliances, steering groups and forums on which we sit in the West Midlands (that we chair), Liverpool City Region, the North East, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough and Cornwall.

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Improving local bus services is a continuous process, not a one-off event

Altogether we have engaged directly with all but four local authorities in England outside London as they developed their BSIPs. Improving local bus services is a continuous process, not a one-off event, and Transport Focus is in it for the long-term.

NATIONAL AND BESPOKE ADVICE

Transport Focus is a statutory consultee on Enhanced Partnerships. This is a responsibility we take seriously and we have responded to over 42 consultations so far. This involves comparing and contrasting Enhanced Partnership Plans and Schemes against our document, What passengers want from BSIPs. We have identified the measures and facilities which would underpin passenger priorities for improving bus services.

Transport Focus is looking for progress in: n buses running more often; n buses going to more places; n more buses on time/faster journey times; n better value for money; n more effort to tackle anti-social behaviour; n and better quality of information at bus stops. n accessible buses n and cleaner buses.

PASSENGER RESEARCH

Following the interruption of our Bus Passenger Survey due to the pandemic we’ve been trialling different ways of getting passengers’ views. We hope to launch our new survey in September 2022. These findings will help support the bus industry in delivering improvements set out in BSIPs. In the meantime we will continue to report on bus passenger satisfaction and their general experience of services through our ongoing satisfaction survey that has been going since September 2021.

Building on our guidance we will continue to advise on the Bus Passenger Charters which everyone is expected to produce.

These should be short, punchy documents setting out what passengers can expect every time they use the bus and what they should do if standards fall short.

Charters make the bus industry accountable for the services they deliver and can be a key marketing tool to drive up patronage.

The benefits derived from a good passenger charter may be lost if complaints are not handled well. Our previous research suggests there’s much room for improvement in how complaints are handled.

We will work with operators and authorities to refine ways to monitor performance against BSIP targets for passenger growth, punctuality and reliability. We will ask the questions about how effective investment has been in driving up standards and whether partnerships are prioritising the right areas. And we will advise on how progress should be reported to maximise accountability based on our passenger research.

Our most recent guidance reminded local transport authorities of their statutory duty to include a plan for consulting users in their Enhanced Partnership Plan on how well it’s working. It also sets out a checklist that we would expect to see addressed in such a plan.

We’ll work with the bus industry to ensure that those plans are delivered.

CONCLUSION

Improving local bus services may seem particularly challenging right now. We are still dealing with the full impact of the Covid pandemic resulting in lower passenger numbers and there is uncertainty for many people due to current financial and economic challenges.

And, at the time of writing this, we have just seen details of government funding for Enhanced Partnerships. As the plans emerge in the weeks ahead, Transport Focus will continue to support all efforts to ensure that every pound spent on improving bus services hits the target and means better services for passengers.

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17/04/2022 11:49

less than

20p a day

All about people

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In times of need, hardship and distress TBF is here to support its members by helping them to keep the wheels of the public transport industry turning. TBF offers financial and medical benefits, a wide range of complementary and alternative therapies, bereavement grants and welfare advice.

£1.25 a week covers you, your live-in partner and dependent children.

Visit us on stand 11 at this year’s ALBUM Conference and see how TBF can help you.

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08/03/2022 17:39

17/04/2022 12:18

The ALBUM Report 2022

EPM

BOOSTING CONTROL ROOM EFFICIENCY EPM Group aims to empower control room teams with integrated technology

s the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic recedes, the bus sector is working harder than ever to get people back on the bus. Software solutions specialist EPM Bus Solutions aims to assist that process with the creation of new products and techniques that can help operators achieve that goal while making them ready for the post-Covid world.

“We work closely with our clients and from those conversations, we know they are really focussed on rebuilding revenue and patronage,” says Nick Brookes, software director at EPM Group. “That’s a given, obviously, but they are also seeking to enhance their operational effectiveness as well in order to reduce costs and drive profits.”

A

TOOLS TO ENHANCE BUSINESS PROCESSES

It means Nick and his team at EPM have been looking very closely at developing new tools that aim to improve business efficiency. That process has been broken down into three component parts: n ‘Before the day’ network planning; n ‘On the day’ control room processes; and n ‘After the day’ processes where commercial and operational performance are scrutinised.

“Our solutions play a key role at each of those three stages,” says Nick, adding that EPM Group has been closely looking at those ‘on the day’ control room elements in order to create new ways of improving efficiency and business productivity.

Part of that process is assisted by the breadth of solutions and products EPM already offers to clients. As Nick notes, they cover the complex chain of processes that run throughout bus businesses and they not only help

to drive efficiencies but also lead to a better service for customers.

“That really helps operators to deliver an excellent customer experience,” he adds. “That’s absolutely critical at the moment.”

CONTROL ROOM PROCESSES

Bus operator control rooms are the hub of the business and the key to ensuring fantastic on the ground service delivery. They cover a myriad of processes such as driver absences, lost mileage or on-the-road issues that can affect punctuality and reliability like traffic congestion or specific issues that require liaison with other departments, like in the case of an accident or vehicle breakdown.

“They are tasked with providing a high-quality service to the customer,” explains Nick. “Those core tasks – making sure the staff are in, the vehicles are on the road and the service is running reliably – are key to that goal.”

But to gain greater insight into how those processes actually work, Nick and his colleagues have spent time in operator control rooms to observe them in action. He says it was an enlightening experience.

“One of the things that really stood out was that operators have invested in lots of different solutions in recent years,” he reveals. “There are lots of different systems in there, but we noticed it was all rather disparate – control room staff have to go to lots of different places to gather that information. When they find it, it’s not always in an easy to use format either.”

Nick says this means that some of the decisions made as a result of not having a centralised source of information can sometimes have significant cost implications and even detrimental impacts on service delivery. “Without a central hub, control room staff have to move from one system to another and then to another

Nick Brookes, EPM's software director

“Without a central hub, control room staff have to move from one system to another and then to another” rather than it being presented in a way that facilitates good decisionmaking,” he adds.

A good example of that is a driver who may have been delayed on the first half of their duty, perhaps as a result of traffic congestion. Nick highlights that control room staff may have to extend their break before they can go back on the road for their second half. It’s a problem that has to be solved immediately, so having visibility of issues in a central hub enables operators to make decisions efficiently and cost effectively.

SOLVING THE PROBLEM

“There are lots of different impacts in terms of how that situation can be managed,” says Nick. “If we have all of that information displayed and available, and particularly the key information you really need to know to make effective decisions, that’s not only going to help improve the efficiency and operation of the control room but also the wider business too.”

He says this could be the

engineering department or customers services, but the key advantage is that rather than control room staff resorting to time-consuming written reports, ad-hoc emails or phone calls – all parts of the organisation are automatically informed immediately, triggering further automated processes further down that line.

“So you have this single operations platform, that brings together not only information from EPM systems, but thirdparty platforms too. That has the potential to not only create efficiencies but really improve communication across the business while avoiding the potential for errors to creep into the data,” Nick adds. “People don’t have to resort to frantic phone calls or wade through files or emails in order to find the information they need.”

MAKING THE RIGHT DECISION

Of course, bringing together all these data sources also presents the opportunity to do new things with them. In that late running bus example, the driver’s duty may be in one system and the vehicle real time information may be in another, but by bringing those two sources together control room staff can be alerted in advance that there is an emerging issue that needs solving.

“We can facilitate proactive decision-making,” says Nick. “It’s perhaps inevitable that if you have information tucked away in various different systems, sometimes you just can’t see the wood for the trees. By bringing those pieces of information together we can help people to focus on making the right decision while managing the operation as efficiently as possible.”

INTREGATED SOLUTIONS

The first phase of EPM Group’s development is to integrate between their new cloud-based Depot Allocation System, OmniDAS, and the EPM Traffic system to ensure that any staff-related incidents are automatically created. This streamlines the process and improves data integrity.

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The ALBUM Report 2022

Timespace

NEW LIVE FEATURES WITH TIMESPACE CCTV Live camera streams and remote download over 4G provide time and cost savings for operators

imespace Technology has introduced new live features for its vehicle CCTV systems. The new “LANLink Live” provides live camera streams for operators using Timespace’s market-leading digital video recorders (DVRs).

The LANLink Live upgrade also provides new benefits when recorded footage is needed. Fleet operators can now view recorded footage remotely, and download video over 4G - no longer needing to wait for the vehicle to return to the depot. Operators can remotely view and select recorded footage based on the date/time, geographical area or alarm triggers. The ability to pinpoint the

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exact footage needed minimises the size of the download file.

Footage can be converted to MP4 files and played back in any web browser, simplifying the process of sharing evidence.

The new LANLink Live features are all available through the Timespace’s proprietary LANLink fleet management platform.

LANLink also provides realtime CCTV health information, including camera snapshots, email alerts and SMART data (harddisk manufacturer’s self-diagnosis of disk faults). LANLink also provides GPS vehicle tracking and vehicle CAN engineering data (also now viewable live over 4G).

“We know how valuable time is for fleet operators. Our new

The V600 AHD digital video recorder

“Fleet operators can now view recorded footage remotely and download video over 4G”

LANLink Live tools dramatically reduce the time taken to find, review, download and share critical footage. Operators can review events, and pass footage to managers and the emergency services, faster than ever before,” says Henry Heylen, Timespace’s commercial director.

LANLink Live is available for all current Timespace DVRs, including the new V600 AHD DVR. The V600 supports the latest AHD and TVI(1) cameras, and also gives operators the flexibility to use PAL and IP cameras. The full-HD V600 builds on the Timespace V400’s reputation for reliability, and is available with storage up to 4TB. Timespace have been developing and manufacturing mobile digital video recorders (DVRs) for vehicle CCTV since 1997. All products are developed, manufactured and supported by Timespace in the UK. ■ www.tspace.co.uk 01480 414147

NOW WITH

LIVE FEATURES

NEW

LANLink Live LIVE CAMERA STREAMS AND REMOTE CCTV DOWNLOAD • Live camera streams over 4G • Remote footage viewing and downloading • View recordings in any web browser • Cost and time savings for operators

Timespace V600

• Compatible with all current Timespace DVRs

+44 (0)1480 414147 mail@tspace.co.uk tspace.co.uk

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Journeo just one system drawing power from the vehicle, running costs are reduced, further reducing the whole-life cost of the system.”

He continues: “This isn’t just for new technology, the Journeo Portal can connect legacy systems and share combined data with other parts of the business, making it a very valuable planning tool. And it is scalable, meaning the savings can be made instantly, whether there are just ten vehicles connected or over a thousand.”

TECHNOLOGY ON SHOW

ALBUM Conference delegates can view Journeo’s latest technology on a single vehicle, showing the power of ‘the connected bus’

INTEGRATING ON-VEHICLE TECH SAVES OPERATORS TIME AND MONEY Journeo is transforming the way buses gather and use data, dramatically cutting whole-life costs and enabling operators to work more efficiently and effectively

ver recent years the amount of technology being used on buses has grown exponentially. From CCTV to vehicle tracking, passenger counting and on-board Wi-Fi, ticketing and passenger information, every system takes up space, uses data and energy, requires installation and maintenance and often cannot communicate with any other.

Journeo is using the return of the ALBUM Conference to show operators how they can save time and money looking after their on-vehicle equipment, and how the choice of an integrated system for new and existing vehicles keeps technology costs down whilst providing a huge variety of additional business benefits.

Core to this is the Journeo Portal, which securely manages and processes data from all on-bus systems, enabling users to access real-time data, complete key tasks

O

a lot of data, and almost every system uses a black box which requires a SIM, has a data tariff and requires maintenance. By connecting everything through the Journeo Portal, which is system agnostic so can connect any system whatever the manufacturer, operators make an instant saving.

By only having to deal with one provider, operators make further savings on simplifying supply and maintenance. What’s more, with

immediately and work smarter from any location. Because everything is accessed via a single, secure, GDPR-compliant website via the cloud, operators can access security, condition, occupancy and other data remotely, without having to visit a vehicle or take it off the road. Therefore, information and insights can be accessed from the depot, office, out on the road or while working from home.

For example, video from any bus or coach CCTV recorder can be remotely uploaded to the Journeo Portal, greatly reducing the time typically taken to find the vehicle, remove the hard drive and share critical evidence. Also, vehicle occupancy levels can be monitored in real-time and at every bus stop allowing operators to alter services and compare information with ticket sales.

Mark Johnson, director of fleet services at Journeo, explains: “On-board technology manages

The Journeo CMS can reduce costs

The enabling technology behind the Portal, the Journeo Edge Intelligent Gateway, will be fitted to an BYD ADL Enviro200EV at the conference, along with CCTV, passenger counting and next stop announcements, to fully demonstrate an integrated solution’s powerful capabilities and cost-saving benefits. Another system of interest, also fitted to the vehicle, will be the latest iteration of the Journeo Camera Monitor System, the digital wing mirror solution used by Go-Ahead, Nottingham City Transport and many others across the UK. The Journeo CMS uses cameras on the outside of the vehicle, which are connected to monitors inside the driver’s cab, to increase visibility. Improving the driver’s vision in all conditions, including at night, in bright, reflective sunlight and in heavy rain, the high-definition cameras give the driver a much wider, clearer view and eradicate blind spots.

Because the cameras are much smaller than conventional wing mirrors, they are less likely to hit trees, bus stops, pedestrians and cyclists. Users of the CMS systems have reported a 60% reduction in accident costs and a reduction in maintenance costs of almost 40%.

Mark Johnson concludes: “This will be the first time that all of our latest technology has been available for visitors to view on a single vehicle, demonstrating the power of the connected bus. We are excited to be able to demonstrate the impressive capabilities of the Journeo Portal and look forward to showing operators the incredible safety features and cost saving capabilities of the CMS.”

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The ALBUM Report 2022

BACK IN BLACKPOOL! elcome to Blackpool!

What a delight it is to be able to welcome our industry colleagues back to our seaside resort and to an in-person conference. I think we can all agree that there is an unmatched value in being able to get back in a room together, as an industry and a collective group of members, who now all face what could well be the toughest challenge our industry has ever seen.

Just how we recover our operations to pre-pandemic levels is rightfully the most pressing question on all of our lips and we’re set to hear a number of thought provoking and motivating speakers across our two day conference.

The theme of ‘Modernise, Decarbonise, Digitalise’ will see a broad discussion covering net zero targets, generation Z, future skills

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media channels to name a few but we need to start joining the dots together and understanding exactly what our customers want and how they interact with us.

One things for certain though, if the industry looks anything like we anticipate it must do if we follow the directive from government, then come what may we’ll undoubtedly be looking like a favourable mode of travel amongst a progressively changing transport landscape. But there’s lots of challenges in the way between now and then.

needs, how we leverage technology to our advantage and more. The challenge at hand is frightening and there’s no shame in wondering where to start first, but what we mustn’t do as an industry is simply protect our losses.

Now more than ever calls for reinvention rather than recovery.

The opportunity to transform how we do business with our customers, suppliers and stakeholders is now – but what we’ve known for the last 30 or so years is not what we can be prepared for in the next decade, never mind 30 years.

Online retailers are treating our customers of tomorrow to ondemand, personalised information at almost every interaction which is setting the expectation for every other product and service provider to match. We’ve collectively made enormous strides through the use of apps, websites, email and social

“The opportunity to transform how we do business with our customers, suppliers and stakeholders is now”

Thank you to all of our speakers, our host David Guest, the team behind the scenes who will make this conference a success, and each and every one of you attending as a delegate, trade supplier, media or otherwise.

Whilst the answers to our next steps don’t sit in this room, I hope that the combined conference agenda and invaluable networking opportunities give us all a springboard to confidently take our individual businesses forward.

Thanks to ALBUM and the Executive Team and all of its members who continue to do so many good things for our industry. Enjoy yourselves, enjoy Blackpool, and thanks for supporting this important first post-pandemic conference.

Jane Cole, Managing Director, Blackpool Transport

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The Conference Programme

This year's event takes place at The Village Hotel in Blackpool and it will focus on the industry’s collective challenge to modernise, decarbonise and digitalise faster than ever

GOLF DAY

2.15PM

CONTACT FOR TIMES

WHAT ROLE WILL THE BUS INDUSTRY HAVE WITHIN THE UK ECONOMY IN 2052?

MONDAY 25TH APRIL

at Village Herons Reach Golf Course

DAY 2

12.20PM

9.00AM

Exhibition area opens

LIVING WITH CONCESSIONARY FARE INCOME AT 60%

9.25AM

12.50PM

Lunch and exhibition time

n Chris Gall, Alexander Dennis

AUTONOMOUS BUS SERVICES ARE THE FUTURE?

Refreshments and exhibition time

ELECTRIC VEHICLES TECHNOLOGY PIPELINE

3.10PM

3.50PM

10.00AM

n Rachel Smith, Alexander Dennis

n Dr Robert Best, Wrightbus

RECRUITING MANAGERS THAT REFLECT CHANGING ATTITUDES IN SOCIETY

THE CASE FOR HYDROGEN TECHNOLOGY

3.25PM

10.30AM

FINAL THOUGHTS

n Chris Cheek, Passenger Transport Monitor

WEDNESDAY 27TH APRIL

DAY 1

2.45PM

n Shane Grindey, Blackpool Transport

Conference opens n David Guest welcomes and opens day two

11.30AM

WHAT DO GENERATION Z WANT FROM BUS TRAVEL?

9.30AM

TUESDAY 26TH APRIL

Conference registration opens Exhibition area opens

3.15PM 12.30PM

Lunch and exhibition time 1.30PM

Conference opens n David Guest welcomes and opens day one

n Alex Warner, Tracsis

2.35PM

n Ian Downie, Yutong Bus UK

n Bill Hiron, Chair of ALBUM CONFERENCE REVIEW

n Jane Cole, Managing Director, Blackpool Transport

Refreshments and exhibition time

1.40PM

4.20PM

n Jane Cole, Managing Director, Blackpool Transport

n Sue Challindor, Counter Terrorism Security Advisor

WELCOME FROM YOUR CONFERENCE HOST

COMPLIANCE WITH UK GOVERNMENT ANTITERRORISM LEGISLATION

n Claire Rawlinson, We Are Buzz BUILDING A SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWING

6.00PM

4.50PM Close of day one

11.50AM

7.00PM

n Tom Quay, Passenger

Gala Dinner

7.00PM

MAKING WEBSITES, APPS & CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS GENERATE TURNOVER

11.30PM

11.20AM

4.30PM ALBUM AGM

Drinks reception

1.50PM

n Graham Vidler, Chief Executive, Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION WITH DAVID GUEST

Dinner at the Blackpool Winter Gardens

Midnight Snacks

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The ALBUM Report 2022

YOUR LINE-UP OF SPEAKERS Read the biographies below to familiarise yourself with your expert line-up of speakers

GRAHAM VIDLER

Chief Executive, CPT Graham joined CPT as Chief Executive in May 2019.

Prior to joining CPT he worked in a wide variety of roles in financial services, most recently as Director of External Affairs for the workplace pensions trade body, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association. Graham has also worked as a researcher in both the House of Commons and the Scottish Parliament, led the policy team at Which? and, as Director of Communications, was a member of the start-up team which created the UK’s largest pension scheme, NEST. Graham divides his time between his family home in York and London. He enjoys football, running and soul music.

He has written and edited a wide range of publications since the first launch of Bus Industry Monitor in 1991, now part of the Passenger Transport Monitor online service. In 2018, he wrote and published Understanding Buses, a non-technical, jargon-free guide to how the bus industry works, a second edition of which was published in May 2021. He writes regularly for the trade press including Passenger Transport and Rail Professional. He has also written and published five novels with LGBT+ themes.

Chris is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and a Member of the Chartered Management Institute. He lives on the Sussex Coast with his husband Michael, his partner of 43 years.

Here he was responsible for the end-to-end visitor experience, on-site branding and the employee journey.

At Blackpool Transport Shane has successfully implemented a number of customer and employee focused initiatives as well as working on the implementation of Blackpool’s popular, high-tech Palladium branded fleet of buses.

CHRIS GALL

Group Engineering Director, Alexander Dennis

RACHEL SMITH

Group HR Director, Alexander Dennis

CHRIS CHEEK

Passenger Transport Monitor Chris has worked in the public transport industry for over 49 years, the last 34 as an analyst and consultant. After joining the National Bus Company as a Senior Management Trainee in 1972, he held several line management posts in bus and coach operations, later moving on to marketing and tourism. Chris was a director of The TAS Partnership from 1994 until 2016 and helped to found and then run Transport Events Group, organiser of the UK Bus Awards and UK Coach Awards.

Manager Group Functions and then on to Global HR Talent Director. She is part of the executive team at ADL reporting to Paul Davies, President and Managing Director.

Prior to joining ADL, Rachel worked for G4S Care and Justice Services leading the HR and Training team at HMP Altcourse, the largest private sector male prison in the North West.

She also has further experience in recruitment and selection and legal support across both private and public sectors.

Rachel says she is passionate about her role and has a strong desire to engage and enable others to reach their potential every day.

Rachel is Group HR Director at Alexander Dennis Limited and she is responsible for their people service. She says her role is truly generalist in nature and covers people and business, strategy, talent acquisition, performance and development, employee relation, pay and benefits and many other areas. Rachel has a team of 20 who service 2,000 employees across the globe daily.

Rachel has been with ADL for 10 years and she has held many roles including starting as HR Officer within ADL’s Aftermarket division, progressing to HR

SHANE GRINDEY

Marketing & Commercial Manager, Blackpool Transport Prior to joining the industry in 2016, Shane spent three years at Merlin Entertainments as Guest Experience Manager, working on national brands such as Madame Tussauds and Sea Life Centre.

Chris Gall joined Alexander Dennis in August 2021 as its new Group Engineering Director, tasked with developing the company’s product range in new technologies and new markets. Chris joined ADL from Jaguar Land Rover.

In this role, Chris will leverage his vast experience to continue to develop and execute the company’s strategy and roadmap to deliver technically challenging engineering projects at pace. He leads ADL’s team of highly skilled engineering and support staff to shape the direction of technology development and respond to market demands as the bus industry transitions towards a zeroemission future. Chris also plays an active role in continuing to drive forward innovation and synergies between the various business units within the wider NFI Group.

A Chartered Mechanical Engineer, Chris joined ADL from

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The Conference Speaker Profiles Jaguar Land Rover where he most recently held the position of Chief Engineer for New Electrified Architecture following success in several key senior and strategic leadership roles over the course of the last decade, including three years on the board of a joint venture in China. Prior to Jaguar Land Rover, Chris spent seventeen years with Ford, rising through the ranks and holding several key engineering roles in across a variety of territories including the UK, USA, Turkey and Germany.

Paul Davies, ADL President and Managing Director, said: “I am delighted we have attracted someone of the calibre of Chris to join the first-class team we have at ADL. With his expertise and international experience, he will be ideally placed to lead our Engineering function as we develop ever cleaner and greener buses and coaches for markets around the globe.”

digital product.

At a pivotal time for public transport, Passenger combines digital ticketing, real-time departures, network information, journey planning, and disruptions management into a single platform for operators. For their customers, it has been instrumental in transforming traditional services and delivering on ever-increasing customer expectations.

achieving the youngest female Commercial Director at that time, a restructure in the business meant there was no longer a job for Claire.

For the first time since leaving college, Claire was unemployed.

Sat spending time with her one year old and playing buses and trains, Claire realised she could do this herself and she met with former colleagues Alex Warner and Richard Soper to share her plans to start her own Public Transport Marketing Consultancy.

JR Buzz was born in 2011 and within a year became a limited company and an employer.

Working through the roller coaster of huge industry and external changes JR Buzz continues today under the brand name We Are Buzz to support operators across the country with their marketing and consultancy support which has recently included digital training.

Claire continues to head up the business whilst looking for further teaching and education opportunities for the business as she plans to start a PGDE later this year.

ALEX WARNER

Managing Director, Tracsis Transport Consultancy Alex has enjoyed nearly 30 years’ experience in the transport sector.

Starting his career at London Underground, he held senior customer service and operational roles before joining British Airways, overseeing cabin crew in Europe then he headed up the company’s Customer Relations function.

He joined the Strategic Rail Authority in 2000 then moved to South Central Trains and then became Route Director, Stansted Express. In 2004, Alex became Retail Director, South Eastern Trains, remaining until the end of the franchise where he joined Midland Mainline as its Customer Service Director.

Alex moved into buses in 2008, as Business Director, First UK Bus, a role he combined with creating Greyhound UK and becoming its Managing Director.

In early 2011, Alex joined Royal Mail, running its Wales & Borders division, then spending seven years as Managing Director, Royal Mail Specialist Services.

He left Royal Mail in 2019 to solely focus on Flash Forward Consulting, which he had set up in 2012, providing support across a range of areas for public transport businesses across UK and overseas.

Alex sold Flash Forward Consulting to Tracsis Plc in February 2021 and is now Managing Director, Tracsis

CLAIRE RAWLINSON

We Are Buzz Claire started working in Public Transport in 2001 after a short career in aircraft maintenance.

Being unable to afford to study full time at University, she worked full time at First Manchester starting as a PA whilst studying for her Marketing Degree. Claire’s aim was to be in a marketing role before graduating to claw back the time (1.5 years) lost having to study part time. Working with the Directors at First Manchester Claire clawed out a position for Marketing Executive (not a huge amount of promise was placed on marketing at that time and there were very few roles in bus operators) the year before graduating with a 2:1 degree.

Staying at First Manchester, Claire worked her way through the ranks with the support of numerous industry members like Simon Bennett, Andy Scholey, Richard Soper and more. After

Transport Consultancy.

In April 2020, Alex succeeded Andy Street, West Midlands Mayor as Chair of the Grand Rail Collaboration and West Midlands Supervisory Board. He is a nonexecutive director within Network Rail.

Earlier in 2022, Alex was appointed Chair, Surrey F.A, overseeing the board of directors accountable for the governance and development of football throughout Surrey.

Since 2011, Alex has been a columnist in the trade press magazine ‘Passenger Transport’.

He was also a non-executive director of National Rail Enquiries and Mytime Active, a large leisure services business.

TOM QUAY

CEO, Passenger With over 20 years working in creative technology roles, Tom has spent the last 10 years enabling transport innovation and behaviour change through digital technology.

Tom helps mobility companies refine tech product ideas (websites, mobile apps, IoT, wearables, APIs) through prototypes and user testing, and then by developing the commercial models, production versions and marketing strategies that help them to succeed.

In 2015 Tom launched Passenger, a digital services platform for public transport operators that captures over 10 years experience of working with UK bus operators into a new

IAN DOWNIE

Head of Yutong Bus, Pelican Ian started his PSV career with Leyland Bus as a technical mechanical and electrical apprentice. After graduating, he started building Olympians and Tigers before promotion into the Contracts department.

When Volvo took over Leyland, he moved to Warwick to join the newly formed Volvo organisation.

During the 30 years with Volvo, he has been responsible for Administration, Finance, Dealer Management, Aftermarket, Product Development and Coach Sales.

In 2014, Ian joined Wrightbus as Managing Director responsible for Sales and CustomCare.

In 2017, he joined Pelican with the exciting responsibility to develop and sell Yutong zero emission buses. The integral single deck electric vehicles are now regarded as best in class in terms of range and energy efficiency, all with air conditioning. To date, over 200 vehicles have been sold to 16 different customers across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. A further 135 vehicles have now been ordered for delivery in 2022 and 2023.

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The ALBUM Report 2022

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The ALBUM Report 2022

The Conference Exhibitor Profiles

Alexander Dennis’s latest electric bus demonstrators will be on display. The single deck BYD ADL Enviro200EV (pictured) and double deck BYD ADL Enviro400EV

OUR EXHIBITORS

A whole host of companies and organisations are exhibiting this year. Learn more about them here

MAIN SPONSOR AREA

ALEXANDER DENNIS

Alexander Dennis Limited is a global leader in the design and manufacture of double deck buses and is also the UK’s largest bus and coach manufacturer. With its range of electric and hydrogen buses and unrivalled aftermarket support, ADL is the perfect partner for bus operators in the transition to zero emission mobility. n www.alexander-dennis.com

automotive applications is at the heart of the company facilitating the production of totally fit for purpose fully compliant products on short lead times.

ALFATRONIX

Alfatronix Ltd is the UK’s leading manufacturer of USB and wireless charging products, dc-dc voltage converters, dc-dc intelligent battery chargers, low voltage disconnects and ac-dc power supplies.

Whether you require USB chargers for installing into seatbacks or sidewalls of vehicles, wireless charging consoles for passenger entertainment, asset management devices, or voltage conversion for system integration of payment systems, CCTV and other ancillary equipment, Alfatronix has an innovative product offering. Since 1979, demonstrated expertise in vehicle electrics and knowledge of

MERCEDES-BENZ

As a professional business partner and technology leader with fullline expertise, the Mercedes-Benz Buses and Coaches brand offers a complete product range including the all-electric eCitaro.

All Mercedes-Benz buses and coaches feature future-proof Mercedes-Benz technologies.

Our products are mature and deliver Mercedes-Benz’s legendary

quality, reliability and safety day after day.

Mercedes-Benz purses its vision of accident-free driving.

In a consistent implementation of the ideal of safety, the integral safety concept from MercedesBenz covers all the phases of automotive safety: from handling safety through the ability to tackle critical situations to accident protection and mitigation of the consequences of accidents.

PELICAN

Pelican are the importer for Yutong, the world’s market leader in passenger vehicles.

We are 100% UK family owned business, who prides ourselves

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The ALBUM Report 2022 with our reputation to support customers across the length and breadth of the UK and Ireland.

We are offering market leading, best in class zero emission single deckbuses, with unrivalled energy efficiency, range and safety. In addition, we offer the only zero emission coach available in the UK, as well as diesel coaches.

TICKETER

Your innovative transit and data intelligence partner.

Ticketer is a UK leading public transport ticketing software and information systems provider.

From delivering cloud-based, data-driven information, to developing innovative mobility solutions, Ticketer is passionate about helping operators operate.

As a ticketing and data partner, Ticketer drives operational efficiencies and insights to fuel operator revenue. Its’ technology is customised for operators of all sizes, offering a breadth of live travel information and payment options, including contactless and Account-Based Ticketing. www.ticketer.com

TRADE AREA 1

STAND 14 BACKHOUSE JONES

Just as the Tower and the Illuminations are iconic for Blackpool, Backhouse Jones (BHJ) is equally synonymous for legal advice to the transport industry and we trust as distinctive. BHJ is uniquely industry specific which explains why we advise most of the major operators in the UK in addition to many smaller familyowned enterprises.

The company is regularly appointed to advise Trade Associations and their members and an edition in the Independent Chambers Guide describes Backhouse Jones as a “marketleading practice with specialist expertise across the full spectrum of road regulatory matters.”

BHJ already has a thousand first-hand experiences of a client’s requirements and through this clear and unequivocal strategy, provides operators with a commercial advantage.

STAND 12 ALTRO

Altro has been developing and manufacturing transport flooring for over 60 years, with a vision to transform spaces for the people who use them. We turn creative thinking into practical real-world solutions, believing that design is the key to innovation and to achieving travel environments which are safe, compliant, and inviting.

Working closely with original equipment manufacturers, transport operators, engineers and designers from around the world, Altro adopts a humancentred approach to designing for the demands of 21st century travel. Focused on continuous improvement and outstanding quality, Altro combines the best in contemporary style with the functionality required to create vehicle interiors for a brighter future.

WRIGHTBUS

STAND 27 ASSET GO

Wrightbus leads the way with zero-emission transport With world-leading zeroemission technology, UK bus builder Wrightbus is on a mission to transform the transportation industry.

An impressive 70% of the company’s output will be zeroemission vehicles in 2022. And with four revolutionary zeroemission buses in production, including single and double deck hydrogen and EV buses, Wrightbus is truly leading the way in carbon-neutral transport to help create a greener future supporting thousands of green jobs across the UK in the process.

To date, Wrightbus’s zeroemission vehicles have saved 1,600 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere, clocking almost a million miles in the process.

AssetGo will demonstrate how busy fleet operators and transport managers can go paperless and streamline their compliance, maintenance and workshop procedures, saving time, improving efficiency and reducing costs.

Key features include: Daily walk around checks • Periodic inspections • Maintenance and workshop management • Driver and user management • KPI and cost analysis.

AssetGo gives you a comprehensive overview of your fleet and driver performance, identifying key areas of improvement and much more.

Hassle-free onboarding and ongoing support and training help make the transition from a paperbased system to a digital one easy.

Get your demo at our stand.

STAND 15 CAMIRA

Across the globe, across generations, the textiles made by Camira are instantly recognisable – a sign of home, of adventure, of a life well-travelled. Woven into journeys for two hundred years, our fabrics have remained a continuous presence in an evermoving world.

With a belief that each journey should be an experience to be treasured, our textiles are created to offer the highest levels of comfort, safety, and visual appeal – with the durability to be enjoyed for years to come.

Blending forward-thinking design with unrivalled manufacturing expertise, we create textiles which transform bus & coach interiors and deliver an exceptional passenger experience.

With an in-house design team, an extensive option of stocked fabrics, the ability to weave on dobby, jacquard and plush looms, as well as supplying ancillary fabrics, Camira is a total textile interior solutions provider –

offering moquette, wire-woven and flat-woven fabrics, alongside vinyl and leather options.

STAND 22 CITYSWIFT

CitySwift’s Mobility Intelligence as a Service platform gives bus network providers the insights to adapt to passengers, without disruption. The platform easily links with existing systems to process hidden data sets, eliminating the barriers to your transport network data.

While giving you access to brand new daily insights into network performance, CitySwift’s platform goes one step further: using data to prescribe resolutions.

Save time, plan ahead, and take action with confidence to dramatically improve performance and offer ROI for your network.

With buses in our DNA, CitySwift is helping transport providers adapt to shifts in operating conditions and deliver a thriving network.

STAND 18 DATIK

Datik is an engineering company specialised in Intelligent Transport Systems. We help Public Transport Operators improve performance, reduce risk and enhance passenger & driver experience.

MagicEye® is a unique driver fatigue monitoring solution focused on early fatigue detection and intervention. The solution is aimed to reduce risk of accidents due to distraction and fatigue as well as helping operators implement driver fatigue policies in the real world. iPanel® AVMS is a Bus Service Performance Monitoring system designed for operational control and schedule adherence monitoring. It comes as standard with APCs, RTPI and VoIP and can be integrated withTicketing and CCTV systems for a fully integrated solution.

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The Conference Exhibitor Profiles

STAND 26 DIPETANE

n Cut Your Fuel Costs n Use less fuel, up to 10% saved , also reduce your emissions of C02 and N0x. n Dipetane enhances your fuel reducing emissions with NO additives giving up to 10% more MPG. n 10,000 diesel lts used per week = £40,000 saved pa. n How much can you save ? n Dipetane also keeps Diesel Particulate Filters clean, EGR Valves and injectors are kept clean. n Works in buses/coaches, lorries, trains, ships, generators, cars vans etc. n We meet the fuel standard EN590, with a No Harm Cetificate and warranty compliant. n www.efficientfuel.co.uk Tel 01384 884488 paul@dipetane.com

Visit EPM and Omnibus on stand 31 in the main conference room for demos of our software solutions, including, EPM Insights, a fully integrated data platform that automatically consolidates data from multiple sources across the business, providing real-time management information on network performance.

STAND 20 FIRST CORPORATE CLOTHING

Liz Aplin will be delighted to see you to showcase a sustainable collection of garments that are responsibly sourced and designed to reduce our carbon footprint and collective impact on the environment.

With years of experience in the world of corporate uniforms we would be pleased to share our skills in building your own individual brand Corporate Clothing solutions that don’t need to cost the earth!

STAND 6 FORMAN

STAND 5 ICOMERA

Working with bus and coach manufacturers and operators, Forman drives innovation and improvements that allow more people to feel confident about using buses and coaches as their primary mode of transport, and make the journeys safer for all.

Our electronic and fire protection systems provide safety, accessibility and passenger experience solutions for public transport and commercial vehicles, including zero emission vehicles, with over 100,000 systems in service across the UK. n Fire Suppression Systems for zero emission and ICE buses and coaches n AVAS n Induction Loops Systems n Information and Voice Message Systems n And many other solutions n www.formanvehicleservices.com Tel 01423 574002 enquiries @formanvehicleservices.com

A wholly owned subsidiary of EQUANS, Icomera is the world’s leading provider of integrated connectivity solutions for trains, trams, buses and coaches, serving millions of passengers and tens of thousands of onboard systems on a daily basis. Our connectivity supports a wide range of digital applications which increase passenger satisfaction, enhance operational efficiency, and improve safety and security.

Our partners in EQUANS’ Transport group, including Navineo, augment our offering with additional digital solutions and expertise in infrastructure, a combination that allows the group to address transport systems as a whole.

STAND 31 EPM AND OMNIBUS

EPM and Omnibus support passenger transport operators to improve their commercial, financial, and operational performance with innovative software solutions. n Omnibus: From scheduling, to staff rostering, depot allocation and timetabling, the easy-touse platforms utilise the latest technology, data science and machine learning to streamline processes and increase network efficiency. n EPM: As consultants and auditors with over 30 years’ experience in bus operations, we have witnessed the power of data first hand and unlocked insights that support and empower network optimisation, future decision making, and business growth.

We have embedded our know-how into a unique range of software and consultancy services that help operators reduce costs, track performance, and better serve customers.

STAND 13 FLOWBIRD

STAND 9 FREEWAY FLEET SYSTEMS

Flowbird’s Account Based Ticketing solution provides a scalable pathway to outstanding customer service, improved productivity and value-adding data. It’s an autonomous solution, enabling operators to bolt on secure contactless payments to existing ticketing infrastructure while optimizing acquisition costs and benefiting from rapid system deployment and flexible fares configuration.

Flowbird’s industry knowledge and expertise provides bus companies with a smart roadmap to Enhanced Partnerships, meeting key requirements of the national bus strategy through an ecosystem integrating ticketing, payments, validators and a secure payment back office. In short, a ‘tap & go’ environment ready for every size of fleet.

Freeway will showcase their all-in-one software for managing vehicle fleets and other assets.

With the switch to digital working, Freeway will demonstrate mobile apps for the workshop, Earned Recognition software, advances in predictive maintenance, and their award winning ‘Fleet in Your Pocket’ management app.

Visitors will see how Freeway pools data on defects, parts performance, fuel, mileage and planned maintenance, plus live data from vehicle sensors following recent integration with Stratio and Wheely-Safe. Using artificial intelligence (AI) these advances help predict problems with vehicles, ensuring the fleet is kept running efficiently and in optimum condition, minimising downtime and costs. n www.freewayfleet.com

STAND 7 JOURNEO

Journeo – Connected systems, for connected journeys.

Formerly known as 21st Century, Journeo is a pioneering technology group that helps the transport community deliver services with confidence and connects millions of journeys every day. We are a specialist provider of connected on-vehicle technology; from monitoring and managing your fleet in the cloud to installing the latest safety and security systems, our expert teams can help you choose, deploy and maintain the right solution for you. Whether that’s through integration with current onboard technology or installation of a completely new technology platform.

STAND 33 LAZZERINI & PHEONIX

Lazzerini is a national and international reference point for the design, development and production of seats for buses,

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The ALBUM Report 2022 school buses, trains, ships, cars and specialist automotive sectors.

Committed to the most stringent and recognised qualifications, Lazzerini is qualified to ISO9001, IATF 16949 automotive standard and also the environmental qualification ISO14001 Leading UK passenger seating manufacturer: Phoenix Seating, part of Lazzerini Group, has been providing the transport market with quality, robust and innovative passenger seating solutions for 2 decades. Specialist expertise and unrivalled dedication to developing our seating ranges helps advance our products to better serve the dynamic passenger transport industry.

■ Sales contact details: Becky Hadley – Sales & Marketing Manager: 01384 296622 sales@phoenixseating.com www.phoenixseating.com

STAND 2 MCKENNA BROTHERS

McKenna Brothers was established in April 1978, with the aim of providing the passenger transport industry with quality destination displays that were second to none. Today, McKenna Brothers is the only UK Company to offer all forms of onboard destination displays ranging from the traditional printed blind right through to state of the art onboard TFT screens.

McKenna Brothers are based in Middleton Manchester, employing over 40 staff. Our motto is “Clearly leading the way”.

McKenna Brothers believe that the customer should always come first and they will always strive and continue to surpass the customer’s expectations.

STAND 23 MIX TELEMATICS

MiX Telematics is a leading global provider of fleet and mobile asset management solutions delivered as SaaS to 790,500 global subscribers spanning more than 120 countries. The company’s

system, which helps you reach your customers using our lighter and smarter solutions.

Combining all this expertise, OpenMove tailors its ticketing, booking and information solutions to integrate various forms of transport into a single mobility platform, making MaaS happen.

■ Please visit our website at www. openmove.com to find out more.

products and services provide enterprise fleets, small fleets and consumers with solutions for efficiency, safety, compliance and security. MiX Telematics was founded in 1996 and has offices in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uganda, Brazil, Mexico, Australia and the United Arab Emirates as well as a network of more than 130 fleet partners worldwide.

and the right services at the right time.

Our customers have a relationship with us that’s built on trust. They trust us to take the time to understand their business.

We take that time and bring value that can be measured.

And we offer that same care to our new customers.

Talk to our experienced, expert team to get a solution that makes sense for your business, whatever stage you’re at.

STAND 17 OPTIBUS

STAND 24 MUIRHEAD

Optibus is an end-to-end, crossfunctional software platform for transportation planning, scheduling, rostering, and operations.

Founded in 2014, transportation agencies and operators in over 1,000 cities worldwide trust Optibus to increase efficiency and ridership, improve service quality, promote transportation equity, reduce emissions and costs, and modernize their operations. Our platform enables operators and agencies to plan and analyze better routes, schedules, rosters, and much more.

Optibus is a cloud-native solution powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced optimization algorithms that are revolutionizing the transportation industry across the globe.

Optibus has been recognized as a technology pioneer by the World Economic Forum for its role in transforming the transportation industry, promoting equity, sustainability, and smart cities.

■ Learn more: www.optibus.com

Lasting passenger comfort with the lowest carbon highperformance leather.

Muirhead have been making fine Scottish leather for the global passenger transport industry for over 180 years.

Muirhead’s lowest carbon natural leather is trusted by most European bus, coach and rail operators. Alongside comfort and luxury, Muirhead leather delivers durability and exceptional performance – with flame resistance, lightweight, easy cleaning and antiviral properties.

These high-performance attributes combine to make Muirhead’s luxurious, soft and comfortable leather the most durable, hardwearing and long-lasting material for bus and coach interiors.

Muirhead provide a marketleading warranty, and exceptional durability, dramatically reducing the total cost of ownership.

STAND 1 OPEN MOVE

OpenMove provides ticketing, data and digitization solutions for bus and public transport operators. OpenMove’s smart solutions empower bus operators and transport authorities to better serve their customers while easing day-to-day operations.

OpenMove offers a multichannel Account-Based ticketing platform combined with a robust real time passenger information

STAND 32 PADAM MOBILITY

Since 2014, Padam Mobility has been providing digital on-demand public transport solutions to better connect peri-urban and rural areas to existing infrastructure.

Their software solutions can also be adapted for paratransit, i.e. transport for people with disabilities.

Dynamic demandresponsive transport enables the rationalisation of public transport by better matching supply to demand. Vehicles no longer follow fixed routes and timetables, but users’ bookings. Efficient algorithms recalculate trips in real-time to optimise and bundle them.

To this end, Padam Mobility offers a software suite with intelligent and flexible solutions that improve the impact of mobility policies in sparsely populated areas for all types of users.

In May 2021, Siemens Mobility acquired the company to support Padam Mobility’s growth and complement its intermodal transport portfolio.

STAND 4 OPTIMUM OILS

STAND 8 QUESTAR AUTO

At Optimum, we aim to get it right first time, every time.

We’ve been providing products and services to our customers in the automotive and manufacturing industries since 1997. More than that, we provide the right products

Questar Auto is a provider of driver performance and operational improvement tools to many clients including central government, councils, police forces, fire services and NHS organisations. We also supply

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The Conference Exhibitor Profiles services to many commercial organisations such as vehicle manufacturers, insurance providers, leasing & rental companies, utilities, passenger transport providers, vehicle importers and fleet owners.

Questar presents to the world its unique, predictive technology & connected vehicle solutions. We are growing year on year with over 500,000 units already deployed in over 20 countries. We provide solutions that not only increase driver and vehicle safety but also provide constant fleet monitoring from anywhere at any time. Our services lead to improved vehicle utilisation, efficiency and uptime giving reduced costs year on year.

STAND 10 SMART GRAPHICS

Smart Graphics are experts in all types of bus graphics. Established for over 30 years, we have been privileged to work with some of the best known bus operators across the UK. From basic lettering and logos to full double decker wraps, we cover a full spectrum of graphics options. Our technical knowledge is second to none and our experienced team are experts in providing a service that minimises operational disruption. At Smart Graphics, we can help you to maximise the visual impact of your buses and make them stand out from the crowd. Graphics…the Smart way!

STAND 25 SURE TRANSPORT

SURE Transport are a leading provider of CCTV systems to fleet operators .

Specialising in the transport sector, we are experts in installation of CCTV systems for Bus, Coach and Blue Light. We can install on the line for new vehicles as well as retrospectively at your depot for existing fleets.

SURE also provide Wing Mirror replacement CCTV, 360 Surround View and integrated A.I. solutions to monitor driver fatigue, driver

performance and eco-driving.

Our team of experts can provide training, fixed price service engineering and cloud-based monitoring for health, live view and instant video download.

STAND 3 TIMESPACE

Timespace Technology develops and manufactures digital video recorders (DVRs) for the transport sector. Our DVRs are installed in thousands of buses and coaches worldwide, and are known for quality and reliability. Our DVRs have 4-24 channels of video, support PAL, IP, AHD and TVI(1) cameras, and have lockable, removable hard-disk storage up to 4TB. Our industry-leading PCLink software makes analysing footage simple, and our new “LANLink Live” platform provides live camera streams over 4G and new tools for remote footage viewing and download. LANLink Live provides time and cost saving opportunities for fleets of all sizes.

■ www.tspace.co.uk Tel 01480 414147

STAND 30 SYNECTICS SECURITY

We support our customer base by providing CCTV, vehicle safety and cloud-based solutions to decrease the cost of insurance claims, protect against fraud and safeguard revenues through compliance and reliability. We focus on providing integrated solutions that enable customers to: ■ Keep vehicles on the road using data-driven dashboards and smart preventative maintenance options.

■ Improve operational performance by connecting live data in a cloud environment to driver positive operational decisions ■ Increase claims management efficiency with cloud services that ensure the quick and secure sharing of footage.

■ Reduce the number of incidents through class leading vehicle and driver safety systems.

We work closely with customers to design tailored solutions for new vehicles and that integrate new capabilities into legacy systems.

STAND 29 URBAN THINGS

UrbanThings is a London-based technology company that exists to make travel simple.

UrbanHub is their centralised Mobility-As-A-Service platform that offers app and web-based mobile ticketing, RTI, multimodal journey planning, automatic fare collection and multi-operator apportionment.

UrbanThings is also the team behind Bus Checker, the UK’s largest independent bus times app, which has recently been upgraded with national m-ticketing capability.

Transport operators in the UK can now sell mobile tickets to customers in the app that they’re already using, with no up-front costs.

UrbanThings’ vision is to create a world in which transport is efficient, effortless and sustainable for everyone.

STAND 19 VOITH STAND 11 TRANSPORT BENEVOLENT FUND

TBF - all about people. People working in public transport… people like you!

In times of need, hardship and distress TBF is here to support its members by helping them to keep the wheels of the public transport industry turning.

TBF offers financial and medical benefits, a wide range of complementary and alternative therapies, bereavement grants and welfare advice.

TBF is a non-profit making benefits provider. Membership costs just £1.25 per week and covers the prime member, their live-in partner and dependent children.

Transport Benevolent Fund CIO, known as TBF, is a registered charity in England and Wales, 1160901, and Scotland, SC047016.

■ www.tbf.org.uk Tel 0300 333 2000 help@tbf.org.uk

STAND 16 TEKNOWARE

Teknoware Bus & Coach Division are a market leading supplier of customised interior lighting solutions and complete interior structures for buses, coaches and other special vehicles globally.

With manufacturing facilities located in the United Kingdom, Finland, Poland, the United States and Malaysia we are your local partner, able to provide bespoke vehicle solutions using localised customer service and design teams. Over 30 years of experience and expertise goes into every product we make, ensuring we deliver solutions that are reliable and consistent in quality and performance.

Voith Turbo Mobility has its core competency in drive systems and technologies. For over 150 years of excellence, we have been pursuing the system concept, the perfect interaction of all components. From the DIWA bus transmission to the latest Voith Electric Drive system (VEDS) drivetrain excellence means integration. Our VEDS system concept combines efficiency with performance, current and future applications, as well as individual customer requirements. Thanks to our holistic expertise in all aspects of the drivetrain, users of our technologies can rely on our comprehensive expertise.

STAND 28 WE ARE BUZZ

We are buzz are a boutique marketing consultancy who support bus operators with their marketing planning and strategy

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The ALBUM Report 2022 and mentoring for their teams.

Based in the North West we work with operators across the UK and are delighted to attend the ALBUM conference. We work closely to support ALBUM and Blackpool Transport with their strategy and look forward to what 2022 has to offer

STAND 21 WTW

WTW provides data-driven, insight-led people, risk and capital solutions to the UK transportation sector. We understand managing complex risks and retaining the people you need empowers transportation businesses to thrive in the face of geopolitical change, technological disruption and labour shortages. Our specialist practice offers data-powered, bespoke insurance broking, risk management and human capital services to navigate the risks and identify the opportunities. We provide transportation sector knowledge and specialism with expertise spanning bus and coach, rail, haulage, logistics and distribution, freight forwarding, tour operators and other industry sectors.

■ Learn more: www.wtwco.com/ en-GB/Industries/transportationand-logistics

TRADE AREA 2

STAND 44 ALLISON TRANSMISSION

Allison Transmission is a leading designer and manufacturer of vehicle propulsion solutions for commercial and defense vehicles, the largest global manufacturer of medium and heavy-duty fully automatic transmissions, and a leader in electrified propulsion systems that Improve the Way the World Works.

Allison products are used in a wide variety of applications, including on-highway trucks (distribution, refuse, construction,

fire and emergency), buses (school, transit and coach), motorhomes, off-highway vehicles, equipment (energy, mining and construction applications) and defence vehicles (tactical wheeled and tracked).

Founded in 1915, the company is headquartered in Indianapolis, USA with a presence in more than 150 countries. Allison has regional headquarters in the Netherlands, China and Brazil with manufacturing facilities in the USA, Hungary and India, as well as global engineering resources including electrification engineering centres in Indiana, Michigan and London. Allison also has more than 1,400 independent distributor and dealer locations worldwide.

Allison new products such as xFE (for extra fuel economy) transmissions and FuelSense 2.0 software technology, which are designed to make today’s conventional powertrains as clean and efficient as possible, as well as electrified products for the near future. Allison launched its eGen Power brand in 2020 along with details of its electric axle which brings unmatched efficiency and high performance to heavy trucks.

■ For more information, visit www.allisontransmission.com

STAND 43 GIRO

Driven by efficiency, GIRO helps agencies plan, schedule and operate high-quality public transit services, with software solutions adapted to their specific reality.

Our HASTUS solution is deployed in more than 25 countries around the world, supported by over 600 employees, who are committed to contributing significantly – with the highest standards of excellence and sense of shared purpose – to our clients’ efficiency gains.

STAND 40 HOWMET AEROSPACE PRODUCT BRAND ALCOA® WHEELS

Alcoa® Wheels is a worldwide producer of forged aluminium wheels for trucks, trailers and buses also offering accessories.

We advanced the transportation industry with the first forged aluminium wheel in 1948, and have been reinventing it ever since. Our leading technology, the Dura-Bright® surface treatment allows our wheels to be shiny while being easy to clean with water and soap without polishing.

Alcoa® Wheels is a brand and product of the Howmet Wheel Systems business unit, which is part of Howmet Aerospace Inc.

STAND 37 ELYDIUM

Launched in 2019, Elydium specialises in the digital transformation of passenger transport. We work with bus operators of all sizes to assist in data preparation, validation and compliance with the DfT Bus Open Data Service (BODS).

In addition to offering cloudbased software solutions, we have extensive experience of developing bespoke data processing pipelines, interfaces and API integrations with third-party systems.

At this year’s ALBUM event, we are showcasing our TransXChange Studio – or as one customer puts it: “BODS timetable verification made simple”! Come to see us for a demo or to discuss any data processing requirements you have for BODS or your local Enhanced Partnership.

for high quality, sophisticated technology, and contemporary design while meeting the highest requirements both in safety and in passenger comfort. Kiel conducts business worldwide with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, Macedonia, Italy, and dedicated sales teams in Scandinavia, France, Austria, and the UK. Kiel seats are available from all the leading bus and coach manufacturers.

STAND 41 LIFTANGO

Liftango powers some of the most successful on-demand shared transport systems across the world. As of today, we, sustainably, power on-demand bus and carpool services with over 50 partners across public and private sectors.

We are helping: ■ Cities evolve into Smarter Cities, ■ Transit agencies to create a better public bus system, ■ Private bus operators to digitise their services to become more efficient, ■ Corporates to create sustainable and scalable mobility solutions for their staff, ■ Property developers to design sites around future mobility solutions instead of using space for parking.

STAND 38 MELLOR STAND 39 KIEL

Founded in 1945 in Nördlingen, Germany, Kiel is Europe’s leader manufacturer of passenger seating systems for commercial vehicles and public transportation, including seating solutions for busses and trains on the local, regional, and intercity level. Kiel seats distinguish themselves

Size and cost appropriate buses for any route, from Mellor Rochdale-based bus manufacturer, Mellor is exhibiting at the Album Conference 2022, and introduces its all new, all electric, Sigma bus range – six models from seven to 12-metres – and the most highly configurable range of electric buses in Europe.

Sigma is the very latest addition to Mellor’s extensive line-up

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The Conference Exhibitor Profiles of electric and Euro-6-diesel powered buses – all designed upon Mellor’s core principle of size- and cost-appropriate flexibility to suit all route profiles.

■ www.mellorbus.com

STAND 46 NAVAHO TECHNOLOGIES LTD

For more than 20 years, Navaho has been at the forefront of developing solutions for digital signage, passenger information systems and data centre security. From hardware and prototype engineering to software development, Navaho has served some of the most famous transport networks in the world. Committed to continual improvement and development, Navaho is proud to be ISO:27001 certified.

■ www.navaho.co.uk

STAND 35 OMNIBUS SOCIETY

Founded back in 1929, the Omnibus Society is today a widely respected nationwide organisation offering comprehensive facilities and activities for anyone with a serious interest in the rapidly changing bus and coach industry.

Whether your prime interest lies in past or present operations, company or route history, or any other aspects, the Omnibus Society will keep you informed and take you behind the scenes.

Meetings of the Society, and it’s local branches and groups, take place in venues across the country, and are regularly addressed by leading figures from within the industry, and we run a series of study tours.

of keeping public transport moving, PSV Glass & Glazing are the only glass distributor and installer who offers a genuine 24/7 service all year around. We pride ourselves in ensuring that we offer our customers truly market leading, cost effective, fully managed glazing solutions regardless of fleet size.

■ www.psvglassandglazing.co.uk Tel 01494 533131

and cities.

Their market-leading mobile and web apps are helping accelerate the UK’s journey towards sustainable mobility, with millions of riders and 80+ national operators onboard.

Passenger’s technology informs and empowers responsible mobility choices, inspiring more people to choose sustainable, shared transport options.

■ Explore solutions for operators and authorities of any size at https://passenger.tech

STAND 42 TD TYRES

STAND 47 PB BUS MARKETING

TD Tyres offer a full range of Truck, Bus & Coach tyres from premium to budget branded tyres direct to the Haulage, Bus and Coach companies. With multiple stocking locations, we deliver anywhere in the UK with a nextday-delivery service.

Supplying tyres at wholesale prices is our game. Our offering also includes a Specialist Technical Department to support fleets to maximise tyre life and minimise their spend on tyres. We also supply wheels, tyre accessories, and offer a casing collection service and a 24/7 365 days a year UK & European Tyre breakdown service.

■ www.tdtyres.com Tel 01684 560029

We create bespoke campaigns for a range of clients.

Our integrated approach to communications allows clients to deal with a single company, whilst knowing that all aspects of the communications process, web design, graphic design, PR and marketing are dealt with by professionals.

Additionally, we know how important it is to maintain a strong and friendly relationship with our clients. We feel it is this personal approach that makes us an extension and a part of your own business.

Similarly, through applying our skills as a team, we create a force to be reckoned with; our ideas work together to form your campaign.

Our new way of thinking creates communication packages which don’t typify, they revolutionise.

STAND 36 TRANSMACH

Established in 2011, TransMach Systems based in London is a leading ticketing system provider offering a range of ticketing solutions. TransMach currently supports more than 300 transport operators across the UK and Europe. TransMach has grown organically over the years with the support of existing customers recommendations and using the latest technology as a core of its offering.

TransMach is specialised in designing and developing bespoke ticketing solutions using its inhouse development team with

STAND 48 PSV GLASS

STAND 45 PASSENGER

Transport technology company Passenger, develop and deliver a transformative customer experience platform for operating companies, travel authorities

PSV Glass & Glazing are the UK’s leading, multi-discipline service provider to the passenger carrying transport industry. We operate the UK’s only genuine fully managed service with teams of technicians working a rolling 24hrs shift pattern, 7 days a week.

With over 28 years’ experience

years of experience working with various transport applications.

The solutions include all-in-one Android based ticket machines - TM500 fixed on-bus and TM920 handheld (driver friendly customised interface, ITSO 2.1.4, cEMV, QR codes validations, BODS ready, 4G comms and easy to plug in with any other system/s) along with the cloud-based backoffice system accessible from any web browser and mobile App (TMCloud), tailor made online ticket booking engine and mobile Apps for realtime tracking and bookings, commercial smartcard portal, revenue inspection App and API integration with third party companies.

TransMach offers customer friendly technical support including yearly fares changes throughout the ticket system’s lifespan via the support portal as well as remote dial-ins/phone calls/emails. TransMach also offers customers a full range of ticketing consumables and in-house repairs service with quick turnaround.

■ www.transmach.co.uk Tel 0208 861 1946

STAND 34 TRANZAURA

Tranzaura’s complete end to end platform empowers the transport industry to manage all compliance, safety & engineering requirements in one central place to transform compliance, safety and profitability.

Since 2015, Tranzaura has been working with the Bus sector in both Ireland and the UK to unlock the potential of technology in way that is accepted by both engineers & drivers by using the same technology as your bank card.

The Tranzaura platform digitizes the pre-use inspection process to improve efficiency, safety and compliance; whilst providing a real-time defect reporting system either through their platform or via a third-party application.

By mid 2022, 50% of the London Bus market will be using our platform.

■ www.tranzaura.com

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