A Day in the Life

Responding to a survey suggestion from an Omnibuses regular, here’s A Day in the Life of a bus industry figure. We originally asked readers to guess who it might be and it took precisely 52 minutes for someone to suggest Alex Hornby, currently of Bluestar (though not for long). We therefore have revised the post with names added back in.

0730 *ish*—Make a phone call to the three units to see how run-out went, so get a brief rundown on any drivers sick, and any vehicle availability and allocation issues.

0800—Check emails and check Bluestar's Facebook page, over breakfast.

0820—Leave home and head towards Eastliegh, with perhaps a detour via the Southampton city centre or the University just to have a nose or say hello.

0840—Arrive at Bluestar HQ and have my daily chat with with engineering manager Steve Prewett. We have a great team relationship. Steve’s one of the best engineering people per se I have ever worked with. There’s no “engineering v operations” battle at Bluestar, as we chucked that old fashioned nonsense at the door when we both started work here. We decided that we’re in it together to deliver results for the business. He has a great understanding of the product, and sympathy of our ideas.

0900—It’s period review tomorrow so must get my report done. I don’t have a great deal of patience to sit and write reports. I’d rather just get on with something more productive ;-) but it’s got to be done! It’s been another good period, with revenue and profit targets up. No lost mileage again relating to staff issues, breakdown lost mileage coming down all the time, so overall a good performance by everyone. Get into it a bit now that I know I’ve got something positive to write about but have to battle through some of the more dreary aspects of the report first, which results in…

0905—Distractions! Start to get waylaid by checking Bluestar on Facebook again and answering emails. Plus, my door’s stays open so there are a lot of interruptions as drivers, controllers and, well, anybody really, comes and says hello or presents me with a problem! Finally get the reports done before…

1030—I have to run out of the building. It’s time to do battle with the car again, in that I have to drive it. Paul Weller, the AOM of Uni-link, can’t stop winding me up with all the various alarms flashing as we travel to the University of Southampton. We meet with the folks there twice a month. There’s a formal meeting alongside our managing director Alex Carter (good if it’s in the afternoon, because that can culminate in a pint!), but this is a more informal one over coffee at their staff club alongside three university representatives. We review operational performance and brainstorm some ideas. All’s progressing well at Uni-link, so we have a useful discussion on what we do next to develop and grow the product. All positive stuff!

1200—Received a missed call from Best Impressions. Chat through the latest branding for our ex-Southern Vectis Citaros due for Bluestar 9 with Ray Stenning. We’ve progressed to about the fifth version now, which is often a typical outcome of the partnership we have, as we both keep on adding and improving on the original ideas. We have great teamwork with all the guys there, and the latest ideas then get forwarded around the Bluestar team for their views to before we make a final decision. A freshly repainted Citaro is next door at Hants & Dorset Trim, so brief Ray on what we’d like to see doing with the internal aspect, with more Bluestar themes to make the customer feel more in touch with the brand.

1230—Chat a few ideas through with the commercial manager Matt Callow now that I’m back at my desk. I have a thing about pushing Sunday frequencies at the moment. When will we all learn that Sundays are now nearly Saturdays? A good discussion. To his credit, Matt is good at playing devil’s advocate to ideas, which often produces the best result.

1300—A formal-ish review with the three assistant operations managers, which coincides with lunch. Steve Cuff, my long-suffering AOM at Eastleigh (dubbed my wife at work), makes the soup whilst Rachel (my wife at home) has done four lots of sandwiches which get dished out. The three AOMs, also including John Barrett who is based at Totton, are great, loyal people, and it has been tremendous to watch them develop. It’s also fun to observe (and stir it up!) how protective they are of their brands and their depots, but I love it as I want them taking ownership and pride in what they do. We go through each driver’s attendance cards; gain an update on driver numbers and recruitment; recent customer feedback (we don’t say “complaints” as we do get commendations too!); Cash Shorts; recent RTCs (that’s modern chat for “accidents”) and any other outstanding issues.

1345—Paul Marshall, our roadside publicity man, arrives halfway through the meeting. I give him a plentiful supply of A4 posters to go and post around both the Bluestar and Uni-link networks. These are entirely produced in house, with *inspiration* from Best Impressions!

1430—Time for a Formal Inquiry (Bluestar speak for a “disciplinary interview”) with a driver. Have a quick catch up on various issues with the Union Rep. We have a good local working relationship with the RMT and GMB so we’re able to sort out many issues quickly and informally together.

1530—We’re in the course of redesigning our training centre as a result of us beginning our Welcome to Excellence customer care courses for all front-line staff, so we have a bit of a brainstorming session about the layout, colours, designs etc. Get a design done for a wall-sized mural to make it look professional and a nice place to be. Decide the whole theme should be about serving customers, even though there will inevitably be other aspects to training, such as economic driving, as it keeps staff focused that serving customers well is what it’s all about.

1600—Time to catch up on emails again. A flick through sees one from our service monitor. I’m not happy with punctuality on one of our routes I the morning peak, so ask the relevant manager to check it out. Actually, the customers on this journey haven’t received our “free newspaper” treatment for a while, so sign off a petty cash form to get a load to take along too. It will help interaction and facilitate discussion with the customers to help solve the timekeeping problem. Also received the email I wanted from BAA Southampton Airport – they like the idea of naming the double deckers used on Uni-link U1 serving the Airport after “aviation” themes to launch during the Centenary Year of the Airport. Arrange a meeting in the hope we can flesh out more ideas and strengthen our relationship.

1640—Get a call from Simon Bell at Southampton council. We have a chat through some roadworks coming up and how we can best deal with them, among a few other issues. Stay in the office till about 1730. Have a meeting to go to, but the deal is normally that I stick around throughout the evening peak with a normal finishing time at 1900. A bit different today though, because…

1800—We’re trying to give our night service a push at the moment, so I have a meeting with one of the big bar owners in Southampton, at his bar. Resist temptation and have a coke, though! Managed to get a good deal done. They’ll carry our publicity and we’ll get them a promo done on our web site, among some exclusive deals for our customers on production of a bus ticket. All good stuff.

1900—Meeting’s finished so arrive at the gym to take out any stresses of the day (checking the timings and loadings of Bluestar 1 and Uni-link U6 on the way—can’t resist!)

2030—Open the laptop again when I get in, so Rachel throws tea at me! Remind her we’ll have a fun weekend to look forward to in a few days’ time in Nottingham house hunting. That cheers her up.