On Wednesday we asked you to vote for the operators you felt should win at the forthcoming Bus Oscars™, the 2009 UK Bus Awards. We estimate that an equivalent of about 25 per cent of our regular readers took part, which makes it our best survey yet.
There emerged three clear winners in each of the three categories. Those who voted, though rational, would have taken a less scientific view than the panel of real industry judges, so it’s interesting to speculate why we see the winners we have. One reason might be that the winners’ brands & images, especially in the first two voting categories, are highly individual and visible. Compare this to Stagecoach who, for example, is doing really good things that might get subsumed under a corporate patina that actually obscures them. Perhaps, Stagecoach just doesn’t stand out like the others. Cue Stagecoach Gold.
Another might be that the blog simply has more readers in the south.
We also asked voters to add those operators they felt deserved shortlisting, giving a reason. Those marked thus * received more than one nomination. Interesting, again, that most nominations are businesses that have their own unique brands that stand them apart from the crowd. No mention of either First or Arriva, other than a First offering that is hardly recognised as such.
- Lothian Buses* (still one of the best & cheapest networks)
- Trent Barton* (innovation especially with comfort and branding)
- Go North East* (innovations in marketing)
- Brighton & Hove* (THE market innovator, links with local communities & businesses)
- Plymouth Citybus (to annoy First & the council)
- Anglian Bus (innovative, modern fleet, customer service)
- Warrington Borough Transport (for Network Warrington)
- Premiere Travel Nottingham (bringing choice & competition to Trent Barton)
- Stagecoach Yorkshire (for turning around Yorkshire Traction)
- Stagecoach Devon (no reason given)
- Stagecoach West (a strong Stagecoach subsidiary with impressive standards & growth)
- Wilts & Dorset (marketing Purbeck Breezers)
- Cardiff Bus (improved marketing in 2008/09, consistently good delivery)
- Thames Travel (small operator exploiting niche well)
- Southern Vectis (Christmas services)
- Greyhound UK (stirring up the express market)
1 comments:
The survey results seem to me to reveal that we have short memories - just a few years ago Nottingham introduced their new 'Go' network, and were lambasted for poor implementation, missing trips etc. Maybe it is the way that they have turned it round that impresses us?
It also seems to me that those who shout loudest about their achievements receive acolades - Western Greyhound comes to mind here, as my experience is that the product on the ground doesn't quite live up to the perceptions spread by the operators themselves.
Perhaps one of the newer upstarts, such as AM-PM or Black Velvet should enter, as Velvet for example is still small enough to 'micro-manage', to the extent that a bus leaving the terminus 3 minutes late is a major issue. Surely, punctuality and top quality customer service are the winning qualities?
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