A MATTER OF CHOICE

• Providing an Alternative to the Private Car

The car is a lifestyle feature. The majority of households have a car, or the use of one, and although car ownership in Great Britain is lower than just about anywhere else in Western Europe, our use of cars (ie. the amount of mileage we cover per head) is amongst the highest. Public transport is very much in the limelight at the moment and the media often portray the idea that people should stop using their cars altogether and switch to public transport.

Such controversy might sell newspapers, but it is not the message that government or bus operators are trying to promote.

Our roads are already overcrowded and the situation is getting worse. If some people were to use public transport instead of the private car for some journeys, there would be a significant difference.

We pioneered the use of market research in the bus industry in the late 1980's and have used it ever since. We know that around 30% of our existing customers could have used a car for every journey they chose to make by bus. We also know that for every two people who try our services for the first time, one will continue to use them regularly. We are now developing direct marketing technniques to target potential customers and offer them an introductory trial.

We regularly interview our customers on a route by route basis and for every customer we survey, we also interview people who make the same journey by car instead of bus. These are the main issues:-

Safety

Buses are a very safe way of getting around. Accidents and breakdowns are extremely rare. Customers take it for granted that we will provide a safe service and we, for our part, ensure that safety is never compromised. We spend millions of pounds every year in preventative maintenance and safety checks and we insist upon stringent compliance with the law and vehicle regulations. Market research also confirms that our customers feel personally safe and secure when travelling on our buses.

Our exclusively single deck fleet and panels of regular drivers no doubt contribute to this feeling of safety.

CCTV is another plus point. Most buses in the trent barton fleet are now fitted with cameras. We use a high quality digital system with a battery of cameras that record conditions on the pavement and road ahead as well as at various points on the bus. In the rare event of any trouble, these images can be made available to the police very quickly. The information is also of considerable value in weeding out bogus claims which could otherwise cost innocent customers a lot extra in their fares - and it helps us deal with legitimate complaints far more quickly.

Top Priorities

Market research gives us a very clear picture of our customers' top requirements

1. RELIABILITY
2. FRIENDLINESS
3. CLEAN BUS INTERIOR
4. COMFORT

These four expectations lead the field by a long, long way, well ahead of accessibility, convenience of stops, information and price.

Price by itself is very seldom an issue - provided that the top four values are being met. The top four between them add up to VALUE FOR MONEY, the fifth ingredient on the list of priorities.

Straight to the Point

It is said in many walks of life these days that people have less time on their hands. This is certainly true for bus travel.

Our 'Flyer' type of routes have proved tremendously popular. The Spondon Flyer has more than doubled Spondon bus usage since its introduction in 1994. Research has shown that up to 70% of the new customers had previously only ever used their car. Likewise, the Heanor - Derby direct H1 bus and the very popular Red Arrow, non-stop Derby to Nottingham route have all been increased in frequency to meet a growing market. In days gone by, bus companies used to make economies by combining routes, making them longer and longer. Only now is research beginning to reveal the extent to which this has driven away longer distance customers. When we research car users, we often ask which route they take to the nearest town or city. If they go a much more direct way from the bus, they are not likely to find the bus attractive. With every brand review that we undertake these days, we look critically at the number of twists and turns in the route and at how well used they are.

Parking

There is no such thing as free car parking.

At some out of town centres in particular, parking is provided at tremendous subsidy, but we all pay for it in the end. When asked to name something that they particularly preferred about using the bus compared to the car, the majority of research respondents mention the hassle and expense of town centre parking. The big advantage of bus travel is that it takes you close to the town centre, leaving you free to continue to your destination on foot. You do not have to struggle to find a parking space and then recover the car before going home. Nor do you have the added expense.

Roadside parking in town centres is seen by many to be very convenient. However, only a very few people benefit from it, whilst roadside parking normally causes serious restriction in road width, which leads to congestion. An added problem is that although there might be twenty or so roadside parking spaces, hundreds, if not thousands, of people during the day will cruise the town trying to find one!

City Jams

The closer the bus can get to your destination, the better. Ideally buses should be able to run through towns and cities so that people can get on and off at the various points without needing to go back to where they started from (the disadvantage of the car). However, this is getting more and more difficult as town and city centre traffic congestion increases. Very often a bus can take as long going a few hundred yards through a town centre as it can to travel four or five miles on the rest of its journey. For this reason we have reluctantly had to cut back some of our town and city routes (for example, the Keyworth Connection no longer runs through Nottingham city centre). This is a choice we would far sooner not be faced with.

Pedestrianisation

We fervently believe in the vitality of town and city centres and support the idea of traffic-free zones. However, in some places pedestrianisation has forced buses so far away from the action that usage has fallen dramatically. A prime case is Ilkeston, where pedestrianisation in 1994 reduced the number of people visiting the town by bus by 20% overnight. Although Ilkeston bus fares remain extremely good value for money, bus usage has never recovered from this downturn and our research shows that people are either travelling to the town less often or going somewhere else, in their car, instead. Several local routes in Ilkeston have perished or have been cut back to match falling custom.

Price

Contrary to popular belief, the cost of motoring in real terms is falling year on year. Government figures confirm it beyond doubt.

Few people are prepared to accept or believe it, but it is nevertheless a matter of fact – and when you think about it, this is one reason why we have worsening traffic congestion.

As cars and motoring become cheaper, more and more people buy cars, and families extend the number of vehicles they own. But the road space that all these cars need is not expanding at anything like the same rate. Many roads are now full to capacity – or beyond – at busy times.

A growing number of people are concerned at the thought of building so many extra roads, at taxpayers’ expense, to meet the growing demand for cheaper and cheaper motoring.

It seems sensible to limit demand for roadspace in the busiest places by introducing a charging system. That would encourage more sensible use of our roads – some people would travel at a different time, some would share their car with others, some would work from home or would choose to walk, cycle or use public transport. But demand for roadspace would fall, there’d be less congestion and life would be easier for everyone.

On the other hand, however, the cost of running buses in the UK is soaring – and there’s no dispute about that either.

Amongst the contributory factors, insurance costs in today’s blame and claim culture are certainly on the list. Government regulations of one kind or another inevitably lead to cost increases too. Fuel, which was about 5% of our total costs not long ago, now stands at 12%. But perhaps the greatest ‘invisible’ component is traffic congestion. As buses get caught in jams, journey times get longer, the bus needs extra time, and inevitably more and more buses and drivers each year are needed to do the same amount of work. This is very costly indeed and inevitably the bus operator has few options – the extra costs can be offset by reducing frequencies, cutting out sections of bus route, or increasing fares. All are likely to drive some custom away and put more cars on the road. And so it goes on.

Research consistently shows that the price of the bus fare by itself is seldom an issue. Value for money is far more important. However, when making the choice between car and bus, we find that a lot of motorists do not include the price of parking in their comparison, nor do they fully count the true costs of running a car. The costs of running the car mount up gradually over a period of time - for example servicing, licensing, insurance, depreciation etc. In a lot of people's minds, if they put fuel in the car yesterday, today it costs nothing to run! Public transport, on the other hand, is completely different. You pay the full cost of the journey up front, every time you travel.

In this case we do have an opportunity. It would be nice to be more flexible in our pricing so that we could identify and reward regular customers with greater discounts. Also, the more fares we could collect in prepayment, the less hassle there would be on the bus platform and the more reliable our services would be. The FRIO ticket is a step in this direction as customers only pay the driver once in every 13 journeys and they get the bonus of 3 free journeys into the bargain. In 2007 we will trial a brand new smart card system which will bring new benefits for customers, speed up our boarding times and eliminate the need for cash fares.

On the whole though, we compare very favourably in terms of both price and convenience against the private car, when one person is travelling. We do not compare so well when family groups travel, which tends to be at weekends and there has been a rapidly-growing Sunday market in recent years. The problem is that whilst you divide the cost of running a car amongst the number of passengers, you multiply the cost of public transport when it is charged on a ‘per person’ basis. We need to find a means of making group travel more attractive. However, recent experiments with family ticketing in Cotgrave and Mickleover have produced a very low rate of take-up - probably because family cars are so widely available at weekends and parking is either free or heavily subsidized in so many places.

Service with a Smile

Conditions on the road are completely beyond our control but quality of service is entirely our responsibility. Our staff are recruited for their customer skills and regularly attend advanced training seminars. As part of the induction training, drivers are put in the customer's shoes when they are given the brief of making a complex journey by interconnecting buses to a strict deadline. Throughout our training we emphasise that at any time a driver could, without knowing, come into contact with somebody who was using the bus for the first time. Research undertaken amongst first time users indicates that people actually find our bus services a lot easier to use than they had expected.

Coming Clean

We have one of the most modern fleets in the country and go to great lengths to keep our buses clean. Every aspect of our service is also regularly monitored through a rigorous programme of mystery customer audits. We are one of the few bus companies to conduct cleaning in between journeys in full public view. Cleaners are stationed at major departure points to sweep out the buses and finish off with an aerosol spray. The buses are intensively cleaned overnight at depot. Research amongst customers and people who don't use our buses reveals that we have a strong reputation for cleanliness, comfort and presentation.

Information

In research, the availability and style of information generally assumes a low priority for most people, although it is obviously a necessity for first time users. Our research shows that the vast majority of customers prefer to get their information by telephone. There is now a nationwide bus enquiry service, Traveline 0870 608 2 608, which is funded by bus companies and local authorities.

We have some 3,000 timetable cases at bus stops throughout our network and research evidence suggests that 70% of people will refer to this information from time to time - usually for confirmation. Our timetables are posted and regularly updated on our website. All of our buses are fitted with leaflet dispensers which carry information about services or timetables, as appropriate.

Space Age Solutions

Real-time information has the potential to revolutionise public transport. The technology is quite basic - a transmitter on the bus exchanges signals with a satellite, which sends it to base, where it is identified by appropriate software. The information can then be beamed to bus stops along the route, or even straight to your mobile phone.

In the mid 1990's, first generation real-time information systems, funded by Nottinghamshire County Council, started up in Bingham, Radcliffe-on-Trent, Cotgrave and Calverton. Market research showed the tremendous potential of such systems in generating customer confidence and dispelling anxiety. This first-generation technology was trialed for many years and has only recently been decommissioned. We learned a great deal from it.

Now things have moved on even further. *startext has now been introduced on our busy rainbow 4 and rainbow 5 routes. With *startext you can find out the time of your next bus without even going to the stop. You simply text through your bus stop code from wherever you might be, and you'll receive a message back in a few seconds. Research shows that almost 80% of customers now carry mobiles.

What’s more, *startext is also available over the internet. You can log on to our website, click through from the top of the rainbow 5 timetable and follow the progress of the buses at any stop. Between them, the texting and website systems are already used thousands of times a week. The same technology is also being used to provide audio and visual stop announcements of all stops to customers using rainbow 5, and Derby City, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire County Councils are adding display screens at key bus stops too. These signs depend upon an uninterrupted signal from a transmitter, and some of the signs can function intermittently in certain conditions. Developers are working hard to find a solution.

Derby City Council has used grant funding to equip the Derby-based Allestree buses, which has now been extended to the Spondon Flyer.

Enforcement

One of the most frustrating aspects of using today's roads is the selfish minority of motorists who believe that the law does not apply to them.

Indiscriminate parking can cause misery to bus users. We have spent millions of pounds investing in super low floor, easy access buses, the latest of which are wheelchair-friendly. This investment is of no value if the bus cannot pull up closely to the kerb at the bus stop because there is a vehicle parked there. More and more bus stops these days are being designed with compatible kerbs so that low floor buses can "dock" there, wheelchairs and buggies wheeled straight on or off, and those not so good on their feet will find the going much easier. If the bus cannot get properly to the correct stopping place, this can cause anxiety, frustration, and maybe even risk of injury to these customers.

Indiscriminate or illegal parking also plays havoc on the highway. Indeed, one illegally parked vehicle can reduce the effective highway space by up to 50%, causing horrific bottlenecks and congestion.

People who infringe other statutory road markings such as bus lanes, whilst others abide by the law, are not only being selfish but also risk causing accidents and delay the buses for which the lanes were designed.

We are working closely with government to ensure that correct enforcement is carried out. As welcome as bus lanes are, they are of little value if there is constant violation. When road space is at a premium we should not tolerate people selfishly choosing to park where they want and cause havoc as a result. Finally, bus stops must be kept free of obstruction.

Looking beneath the symptoms

Tackling The Causes of Congestion

Buses work best in high frequency, high volume focused markets. Town and city centres are good examples of places where large numbers of people come together to work, shop or enjoy a night out.

The more popular the town and city centre, the busier it will be and the greater the traffic problems.

We believe very strongly in the vitality of town and city centres. We give our support and a great deal of management time to working in city management teams, steering groups, consortia, business chambers and partnerships (both with the retail community and local authorities) to ensure that we get the best out of our local towns and cities. The important thing is that we concentrate on moving the maximum number of people, rather than the maximum number of vehicles, and keep things on the move.

Congestion normally builds into two distinct peaks. In the morning normally between 7.30 am and around 9 o'clock, whilst the afternoon peak typically runs from 3.30 pm through to around half-past 5 or 6 pm.

In bus operation, the peak hours of day are the most expensive. We very seldom are in the position to offer discounts on fares at this time of day, because there is such high demand for seats and our progress on the roads is far slower. About three-quarters of the costs of running our services are time-based, mainly wages. So even when a bus is standing still, it is notching up substantial running costs. At the peak times of day every bus in our working fleet is employed on the road. Every extra mile run at peak would involve us buying another bus.

Managing congestion is one thing, but tackling its causes is another. It is very noticeable during school holidays that traffic on the roads is significantly reduced. It follows that schools contribute heavily to peak congestion - in fact on schooldays, 1 in 5 cars on the road is doing the school run.

This raises the argument about why school times should not be staggered. Not only would this spread and reduce the peak itself, it would also enable bus operators to provide more bus services to schools - and more cheaply, because one bus could then do more than one schools journey. This would encourage greater use of schools buses.

Likewise, in town and city centres the idea of 9 to 5 retailing is being seriously questioned in many quarters. Tens of thousands of people work in the average city centre and it seems curious that just as they are taking to the streets after a day's work, everywhere is closing. This has over the years driven business away from city centres to out of town retail parks which are typically open 'til 8 pm, which has resulted in extra private car mileage. The idea of creating more quality living space in town and city centres is also starting to take off. There are clear advantages if one doesn't have to travel at all!