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Harnessing innovation to win new business

Posted: 6 December 2005 | Piers Marlow, Director – Northern Europe, Bob Holland, Director – Southern Europe and Kate Kollias, Marketing Communications Manager, Arriva plc | No comments yet

Arriva is one of the largest private sector providers of passenger transport in mainland Europe with operations in Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.Our mainland European businesses have some 6,000 vehicles operating an extensive range of services including buses, trains, commuter coaches, taxis,water buses and fully accessible demand response vehicles.There remain significant opportunities as the bus and rail market,which the European Union estimates to be worth €125 billion, increasingly opens to competitive tendering.

As markets open to competitive tendering, authorities are seeing the benefits of contracts that allow public transport operators the flexibility to make services more competitive and customer-oriented.Arriva has successfully applied several innovative management tools at local level to win contracts and enhance services. These include employee training, network improvements and the use of technology.What follows are examples of the successful application of these tools in our operations across mainland Europe and the UK.

Arriva is one of the largest private sector providers of passenger transport in mainland Europe with operations in Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.Our mainland European businesses have some 6,000 vehicles operating an extensive range of services including buses, trains, commuter coaches, taxis,water buses and fully accessible demand response vehicles.There remain significant opportunities as the bus and rail market,which the European Union estimates to be worth €125 billion, increasingly opens to competitive tendering. As markets open to competitive tendering, authorities are seeing the benefits of contracts that allow public transport operators the flexibility to make services more competitive and customer-oriented.Arriva has successfully applied several innovative management tools at local level to win contracts and enhance services. These include employee training, network improvements and the use of technology.What follows are examples of the successful application of these tools in our operations across mainland Europe and the UK.

Arriva is one of the largest private sector providers of passenger transport in mainland Europe with operations in Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.Our mainland European businesses have some 6,000 vehicles operating an extensive range of services including buses, trains, commuter coaches, taxis,water buses and fully accessible demand response vehicles.There remain significant opportunities as the bus and rail market,which the European Union estimates to be worth €125 billion, increasingly opens to competitive tendering.

As markets open to competitive tendering, authorities are seeing the benefits of contracts that allow public transport operators the flexibility to make services more competitive and customer-oriented.Arriva has successfully applied several innovative management tools at local level to win contracts and enhance services. These include employee training, network improvements and the use of technology.What follows are examples of the successful application of these tools in our operations across mainland Europe and the UK.

Risk/reward

One of the simplest ways in which a contract can elicit improved performance is through a regime that rewards good performance and penalises poor performance. Transport for London introduced a performance regime under the Quality Incentive Contracts, which penalise excess waiting time and pay a financial reward for buses on time and for mileage delivered.

Arriva employed several management tools to respond. We drew up a plan that required the creation of a new grade of Performance Manager, the addition of 150 Controllers to the existing 50 and revised training for all of these people. Drivers were promoted to Controllers, which was staggered over the following three years.An external training company provided soft skills training for the new Managers in leadership, project planning, performance review and communication skills. Whilst training for the Controllers, they added a PC-based simulation of a route to develop skills for controlling services. Roadshows were run in all garages to bring Drivers and Engineers on board with what was needed in better quality. Presentations were also made to trade union groups. Regular four-weekly performance figures are published for each route and success can be gauged from the sustained improvement in reliability, which has been achieved to the benefit of passengers.

Performance regimes are also used in Denmark, where Arriva was the first operator to win a contract to operate rail services in Jutland.We collected bonuses for every quarter last year for punctuality (more than 97 per cent) and customer satisfaction, where we currently score 3.87-3.99 out of a possible 5.

Independent customer surveys and focus groups provide us with vital information about customer demand and allow us to modify services to meet their needs.We welcome the use of customer panels, surveys and feedback groups because it supports our policy of continuous improvement.

Improved network

One of the best ways in which we can improve journeys for our customers is through local authority partnerships.Arriva’s input – the introduction of new easy-access vehicles, increased frequencies and ticket deals – can be complemented by local authority investment in better bus stops and stations and giving road priorities for bus users.

In Medway in the UK, we completely reviewed our services to produce a more attractive, streamlined network to reflect both customer demand and our desire to grow the market. The easier-to-use network was the result of both customer and employee research. In fact, many of the changes stemmed from ideas and information fed in to us by our employees. Route upgrades and earlier morning/later evening services were introduced in the €14.5 million initiative, which saw the introduction of 60 brand new and 40 refurbished buses, and vastly improved employee and customer facilities.

Alternative fuels

We make continuous improvements in the way we impact the environment, aiming to use fuel more efficiently and cut down greenhouse gas emissions. A tender bid can be attractive to client bodies and passengers if it offers more environmentally friendly options. In a recent successful round of bus tenders in Copenhagen, we offered to deliver all new buses with Euro 4 engines, the newest and most environmentally friendly on the market, as well as liquified petroleum gas (LPG) buses. This package also included real time technology and a range of other technical products aimed purely at passenger safety and improved quality.

This approach has also been incorporated in services in southern Sweden and will be in everyday use in October 2005. Throughout Scandinavia, we operate different types of gas powered buses and we were the first operator of 29 Lint 41 Euro 3 powered trains delivered in 2004.

In Germany, Arriva has been successfully trialling the use of vegetable oil-derived fuels in our trains. As diesel fuel and vegetable oil have very different chemical and physical characteristics, the train engines were specially adapted. The vegetable oil is not only cheaper, but it has less of an impact on the environment in comparison with diesel.

Innovation

Innovation is key to winning contract work and technology has an increasingly important part to play in improving services.We started introducing a ‘black box’ system, capable of capturing key moments of incidents including G-force impacts, on to our buses in the UK. The system allows a control room to view the driver’s situation through CCTV. It also maps the location of the bus so that it can be reached quickly in the event of an incident. As well as improving customer safety, it can help reduce criminal damage and fraudulent insurance claims. Similar technology is to be introduced in Copenhagen in 2005, which together with video and camera surveillance, Alco lock and a visible speed indicator, offers passengers the most modern security features available.

Another innovative management tool is an automated Track Rank and Publish system in Scandinavia, reporting management KPIs and performance. It also publishes the results for complete transparency with our employees, allowing people in each location to understand how their part of the business is performing in comparison to others.

Employees

Good customer service and excellent driving skills are vital in delivering a better service, so Arriva continues to invest in training for its employees. The Danish Training Centre for Public Transport was established 25 years ago and became part of Arriva in 1999. It offers initial and supplementary training for bus drivers not only for Arriva but also all other operators. In 2004, we established a similar centre in Malmo in Southern Sweden. These centres aim to ensure that consistently high standards of customer service are delivered in a region regardless of the number of different operators involved.

Arriva conducts an employee survey across the Group highlighting local and wider issues – we report back on these to our personnel and explain how we will adopt their comments and ideas.We also explain sometimes that we cannot adopt their ideas and why, which is equally important. Employee open meetings are held in many locations, explaining what we need to see from our personnel but also hearing their problems and any barriers to delivery that they see.

Investment

In order to improve services, whether it is through new vehicles, the latest technology or employee training, Arriva has to make a significant investment. Our ability and willingness to invest for the long term is clearly attractive to tendering authorities.

For example, in March this year, Arriva won the contract to operate all regional rail services for the next 15 years in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen. One of the key commitments contained within the new franchise is new rolling stock to be operational by September 2007. Arriva has placed an order with Stadler for 43 new GTW trains at a cost of €138 million and will take delivery of the first new trains next year. The length of the franchise and the consequent opportunities for long-term growth lend themselves well to this high level of investment.

The most important lesson we have learnt is that a business can have excellent systems and processes, but unless people ’own‘ these processes and know how to use information to improve services, customers will not see the high level of quality that can be generated.We hope that more and more contracts will allow flexibility, so that operators can respond when bidding to demonstrate improved quality for passengers, leading to more people using European public transport networks.

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