3. Overview – What am I talking about?
• Who we are…
• Customers at the Centre of all we do
• Culture Change
• Technology – improving the customer
travel experience
• Key learning points
• The future
4. Who am I?
• Bus Conductor – 1974:then NBC Senior
Management Trainee
• Over 35 years’ experience of running
buses
• People’s Provincial Buses Co-ownership
• Stagecoach
• Since 2007 CEO of Reading Buses
5. Introducing Reading
• 135 buses
• 420 staff
• £27m annual turnover
• Profitable
• c20m passenger journeys/year
• 2012 Shire Operator of the Year
winner
6. More about Reading…
• Local bus network almost 100%
commercial,
• Passenger growth – about 6% average!
• Contracts for Vodafone and south Reading
business parks
• The GreenBus
12. • Big investment in buses – hybrids, gas
• Flat fares and simple period tickets
• High levels of utilisation: busy buses!
• Main Operator in Reading
• Highly-motivated and willing staff!
13. Customers
• at the centre of all we do…
• It’s a different mind-set
• Customers as people: our neighbours
friends, kids mums and dads
• Personalising what we do
• Making them feel like winners!
14. Changing the culture
• Started in 2008
• Formation of Reading Buses Academy
• Policy on recruitment
• People who like people!
• Need to enjoy our work, to have fun!
• Having passion for getting it right…
15. The driver experience
• Matters most of all
• Only a few seconds to make a
relationship
• Power of smiling
• Working with people with disabilities
• Power to “own” the job
• Pride
16. Power of Communication
• Inside & Out
• Reading Buses Bulletin every week
• Flash Boards
• Driver Performance Managers
• We see each other regularly
17.
18. Ticketing - we wanted:
• New system
• Complete replacement!
• Smartcards
• Online top-ups
• Reliable
• Driver-friendly
• Customer friendly
• ITSO compliant
19. Ticketer
• October 2010 first trial – 6 buses
• January 2011 – first whole route Jetblack1
• March 2011 – whole company
• Smartcards the worst problem
• Just a few days we’d forgotten the horrors
of Wayfarer!
20. Ticketer benefits
• Web-based system
• Gave us control of tickets and products…
• New flexibility
• On-line top ups
• Printer, card reader and console all separate
• Messages on tickets
• Customisable
• routes, ticket types, fares, logos, drivers
21. Features of our service
• RTPI and plenty of priority…
• AVL used to manage system
• On-bus announcements
• Destination repeaters
• Interaction with the railway – PlusBus
and departures…
24. Products
• simplyReading range of
7, 30 & 90 day tickets
• £1 To Town – 100% passenger increase!
• Group Travel £8 + £5 at week-ends
• £2.20 returns
• In the dog house… Ruff deal for dogs -
Doggy Day Rover!
25. In the dog house!
• A ruff deal for dogs
• Expensive!
• £1 per trip
• Flat fare system
too restrictive
• New system allowed a…
26. Buy your dog a…
• Doggy Day Rover = more customers
27. The human example!
• Expensive in particular situations e.g.
short hop
• Flat fare system too restrictive
• New system allowed tailored and
responsive products
• £1 to town introduced
• Result = Increased £££ and customers
28. • Under 19s travel at child rates
• No ID, no questions
• Introduced August 2012
• £1.30 Single
• £2.20 Day
• £10 Week
• Already 250,000 journeys a year more
29. Learning Points
• No tickets for concessionary pass
holders
• Need to speed up ticket issue and
uploading of value
• Cab layouts difficult to adapt
• On-line is the future!
30. Conclusion
• We need all the revenue we can get –
with Ticketer revenue was up (by up
to 4%) on implementation
• Ticketer works well and delights
• On-line topping up is sensational
• Wave & Pay is our next ambition
