10 takeaways from young managers

Sunday 23rd October 2022

I had the pleasure of jointly hosting another Young Bus Managers’ Conference last week with Martijn Gilbert. Held in Sheffield it was another inspirational event over brimming with energy and enthusiasm emanating from around 60 keen young people from whom I’m sure senior industry leaders will emerge in the future, bringing vital industry knowledge and ‘hands on’ bus company experience to key roles.

Here are 10 takeaways from the event.

1. We visited First Bus’s huge Olive Grove garage on Tuesday afternoon being shown around by Operations Manager Darryl and Engineering Manager Liam. I’ve been to many large bus garages in my time and this was definitely one to impress. First Bus has recently introduced cuts to services in the city to better match the daily requirement for drivers with the number available, which has brought service reliability back to an acceptable level as well as palpably reducing stress levels for all staff.

Olive Grove’s engineering and stores management and facilities are impressively well organised, clean and tidy and convey a very professional approach.

2. Improving profitability through just stripping out costs and ignoring revenue will ultimately undermine that revenue and profitability. (Thomas Ableman observing Travel West Midlands during the period when he was a trainee at that company) and…….

…. the one differentiator between coach companies scoring high or low in customers’ feedback satisfaction ratings who’d travelled with Snap was the crucial role played by middle managers in those companies. The ones who engaged positively with and motivated their drivers compared to those that were disengaged made all the difference. (Thomas Ableman observing lessons learnt during his ownership of Snap)

3. The bus industry should never under estimate the importance of advocacy and work hard to enlist support from stakeholders and passengers. (Thanks Matt Kitchin, managing director, Stagecoach Yorkshire)

4. Covid forced bus company managers to take a proper look at what services they were running and question whether everything should be done just because it’s always been done. (Thanks Ben Gilligan, managing director, East Yorkshire)

5. Monitoring battery performance in electric buses is important including avoiding deep discharging as well as fast charging; watching degradation curves; rotating the fleet around different operating conditions; and watching driver performance (avoid harsh braking). (Thanks Mungo Fawcett at Zenobe) …. electric bus operation brings with it a whole new world of management.

6. Design matters; challenge the status quo; be seen at the coal face; be your own customer; earn trust and empower; bias for action; think differently and think big; ownership. (Thanks Matt King, Arriva Midlands and a Young Bus Manager)

7. Shout about what youre doing; experience the front line; learn from the best and your mistakes. (Thanks Scott Cooper, Coatham Coaches and a Young Bus Manager)

8. Work at building relationships with stakeholders over a long period; don’t expect responses from a few briefing email communications from time to time. Partnership working is not easy, it involves building relationships built on trust. (Thanks John Dowie, Executive Director Infrastructure and Place at South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority)

9. FlixBus at its core is a tech company which is building a ‘World Class Team’ aiming to employ individuals with ambition; strive for excellence; enjoy extreme ownership of challenges; have urgency, hard work and transparency and partners coach operators who share those attributes. (Thanks Andreas Schörling, managing director UK, FlixBus)

10. Many suggestions came from young managers in the Group session looking for good ideas for improving retention and recruitment of staff ….

…. including …..

….. management style: be highly visible with an open door policy; get to know staff and make sure they know who you are; share positive feedback as proactively as possible; avoid undue formality unless it’s essential; have courageous conversations ….

…. internal communications: be approachable and visible; ensure tone of communications is right for the audience; communicate to your team as you would wish to be communicated to; hold engagement events – eg a driver barbecue, a walking event, community football; recognise service anniversaries; encourage drivers to be brand ambassadors ….

…. recognition and reward: make sure drivers aren’t jut a number; recognise good customer service; look at childcare arrangements; have a hairdresser on site; have a ‘slush fund’ to help in hardship cases; encourage a culture of ‘being part of a winning team’; encourage a ‘family feel’ to the workplace; ….

…. recruitment: promote pay more widely to potential recruits; use digital marketing for recruitment eg TikTok; hold recruitment/community events; encourage diversity; ensure interviewers are properly trained in interviewing; have flexible shift patterns; hold open days; show a career progression.

The next Young Bus Managers Network’s conference will be in the West Midlands in Spring 2023. Any young managers involved in the bus industry are most welcome to attend. Click this link for details.

Roger French

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