Adrian Waine is truly dedicated to his driving duties at Gloucestershire-based Pulhams Coaches. As he explained to Angela Youngman, he can’t imagine doing anything else
Being named Top Coach Touring Driver at 2017’s UK Coach Awards came as a total shock to Adrian Waine of Pulhams Coaches.
“Winning the award was definitely the highest point of my career so far” he said. I was surprised, because I didn’t think I was the best in the company let alone in the country.
“I enjoyed the evening, it was a great occasion. When my name was read out, I was completely stunned as I had not expected to win. It was a shock to the system, but I was smiling from ear to ear.”
Such a reaction was typical of this unassuming driver. When supporting his nomination, Sue Gregory of Pulhams Coaches wrote: “Adrian is one of our top drivers who is well-liked and respected among colleagues due to his professionalism, route knowledge, impressive driving skills and awareness of driving regulations. He is also a thoroughly nice chap. He always conducts himself without any fuss, being flexible, conscientious and with good humour.”
She continued: “Adrian is described as unflappable by his colleagues, remaining calm and professional even in tight situations and spaces. He is an excellent role model and mentor for new drivers, passing on his advice and experience to others in an appropriate manner.
“He is an outstanding ambassador for Pulhams Coaches, taking a pride in his personal appearance, the customer service he delivers and in keeping his coach immaculate inside and out. He is truly deserved of this award being of humble character and never boastful.”
Tony Milhofer, owner of Routes to Suit Travel Ltd, was responsible for the nomination. He commented: “I have arranged and escorted many groups by coach – in recent years exclusively using Pulhams Coaches – and always with the benefit of Adrian Waine as our driver.
“Adrian is an outstanding coach driver who takes great interest in checking the detail of the proposed route, drives safely and sensibly and above all else he takes great interest in the comfort of his passengers.
“I was delighted to be able to nominate Adrian and even more delighted to discover that he had won.”
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A perfect fit
Adrian has been driving coaches for around thirty years, having gained his licence in 1990. It is a job that he thoroughly enjoys, always aiming to provide the best travel experience possible for his passengers. He started his career in the transport industry driving buses, before moving to coaches. It was a move that suited him well.
Adrian joined Pulhams Coaches, based in Bourton-on-the-Water, nine years ago on the recommendation of his son-in-law, who also drives for the company. He says: “I enjoy working for Pulhams. It is a wonderful family firm and has a really good team. It is much bigger now than when I joined it, but people know you and who you are. I cannot see myself doing anything else.” At Pulhams Coaches, his job is a varied one, taking groups on private hires and tours all over the UK and onto the continent. These groups often include whistlestop tours around the UK for groups of Japanese and Chinese tourists.
Adrian enjoys the variety presented by his job. “One of my favourite places is taking groups to Scotland. I took a group of Australians recently who came with telescopes and were also into steam trains. I didn’t get to go on the steam trains but had to race to the end of the line to pick them up after their journey. I like visiting new places wherever I can. I am looking forward to taking a group to Croatia in June. I will be working with my son-in-law sharing the driving. I often take school groups down to Barcelona. You don’t have to do an awful lot when you get there as the teachers are taking them to local attractions or doing water sports. You get time to explore. I sometimes go back to these places with my wife on holiday so that I can share my experiences.”
Driving is a task he has enjoyed all his life. When illness meant that he lost his coach licence for a while, he was really upset at the thought of not being able to do a driving job again. Regaining his licence was another high point in his career.
“I enjoy driving. I am very relaxed about it, and always want to get my passengers to their destination as smoothly and as fast as possible. My passengers have to feel they are gliding along. I drive a Mercedes-Benz Tourismo, which can turn on a sixpence. People on the coach watch me driving. It is like having a driving examiner on board and you have to do everything right. I often do a gardens tour for the guy who nominated me for this award. He phoned me recently and said that a couple who had occupied the front seat on my latest tour had been so impressed by my driving that they were improving their own driving style as a result. I was just driving, it was nothing special.”
It is this relaxed approach that he is passing onto other coach drivers through his work as a mentor. “You do get people joining us who have just done bus work or who are a new driver. When you are working on a two-person job, you can share your knowledge and way of working. Driving coaches is a different way of working to driving a bus. I encourage the new recruits to be more relaxed about timing and being a bit more flexible, listening to any requests that passengers may have.”
Keeping cool
His calm demeanor is not all that it seems, as he explains: “It is a façade. I am probably very nervous inside. I am actually quite a shy person. Up to a couple of years ago, I found it difficult to speak with a microphone. I still have to turn and face people rather than use the one on the dashboard. I always try and look on the bright side – I have got an easygoing attitude. I know what the coach can do, and the spaces it will fit in. I have got a reversing camera on board, and gadgets like that make my life much easier.”
If problems occur, he is quick to admit his mistakes. “I almost got myself stuck once in Oxfordshire. I was following sat-nav directions leaving a historic house. The map said turn right and right again at the bottom of the drive, while the sat nav said turn left and left again. I followed the sat nav and found myself on a very narrow road that I couldn’t get down; I had to admit to passengers that I had made a mistake and reversed until I could turn around.”
On two-person tours, he often has to act as the tour manager, dealing with any problems that occur such as problems with accommodation when tour participants are not given the type of accommodation they had anticipated. “You have to work with the hotel to get a better outcome. I always feel a sense of achievement when I have solved a problem,” he commented.
On other tours, he works with tour leaders, or if it is a school party, the teacher in charge. “I have taken a lot of school parties out to the battlefields in Belgium or down into Spain.”
When working with tour leaders, he regards careful liaison as extremely important to ensure that the tour works effortlessly, meeting all their expectations.
Unphased
Adrian’s driving career has not always run smoothly. There have been difficult situations that have tested his abilities as a driver to the utmost. “When the bad snow was on earlier this year, I had a weekend tour to Cricket St Thomas in Somerset booked, picking up passengers in various cities. The office called me and said the weather really looks bad, so you ought to go down early. The two and a half-hour journey took five hours.
The next day there was snow everywhere and many of the people couldn’t get to the pick-up spots. We didn’t see another coach anywhere. We were about to start the journey when I heard about long delays and abandoned vehicles on the A35. I asked people on the coach if they knew a better route. One passenger phoned his son who said the A36 into Salisbury was good, so we took that. It was a matter of asking and getting local knowledge, rather than thinking you know it all. I didn’t let it phase me, I knew we could get round.”
On another earlier tour to Cricket St Thomas, he had even had one passenger demanding that fellow passengers wanted the coach to go straight back home rather than make the final stop on the last day. Dealing with the situation required considerable tact and sensitivity. Although the tour continued with its plan to visit Shaftesbury for a couple of hours, he said that people could return early to the coach and wait for everyone else to return.
Reactions were very positive, with most people saying they really enjoyed Shaftesbury.
His calm approach was equally invaluable on a coach trip to London where two elderly ladies became lost in Buckingham Palace. “People went into the Palace one way, then out through the gardens via a gateway guarded by a policeman. After 10 minutes they had still not come, and we couldn’t see them through the gateway. We rang them, but their phones were not answering. We contacted the client and they said to get the rest of the group to
Covent Garden for lunch and they would arrange for a taxi for the two women when they were found.
“Just as we were going past Buckingham Palace, we saw them coming through the front gate. They had got separated and panicked. One of the women had got lost in the garden. A Buckingham Palace guide got them out. We reversed, stopped and let them on. They were so flustered and so thankful we had picked them up.”
Planning ahead
Adrian’s professionalism and attention to detail were among the key reasons why he was named Top Coach Touring driver. He takes the time to research places and identify exactly where everything is, including the exact location of the hotel and parking spaces. In June for example, he and his son-in-law will be taking a group Croatia, a place to which he has never been before. “We will be doing a lot of research about the trip” he said. Another tour group is over there at the moment, and we will be talking to their driver to find out what to do and where to go. We will be driving three days to get there – first day pickups and overnight in Belgium, down to Austria, and then to our destination where there will be four or five days stay, then three days back.”
“I always double check the route and obtain information from other colleagues, Google Maps and do as much research as possible before each trip. If it is my first time in a location, I do tell passengers and am quite open about it, saying if you have any ideas or detailed knowledge of the place to let me know.”
He continued, “The advent of Google Maps has made it much simpler, as you can see exactly where you are going if you take the time to do the research. Nine out of 10 times you can look at a Google map and see exactly where you can park the coach, which makes it easier, even seeing what the hotel looks like, so you know what to look for when you arrive. It makes you appear more professional to your passengers.”
He regards it as important to look and act in a professional manner at all times while working. Being given a brand-new coach to drive was one of the best experiences of his career with Pulhams. It was the first new one he had ever driven, and Adrian takes great care of it to ensure it always looks good.
“I like to add extra touches to make it look really presentable, especially in summer – making the alloy wheels shiny, blacking the tyres, using the on-board vacuum cleaner and keeping all the windows really clean. Passengers want a really good view of where they are going.”
Above and beyond
Perhaps the key factor which really marks Adrian out as the top Coach Tour Driver is his willingness to go the extra mile in terms of customer care whenever possible. The approach was clearly demonstrated last Christmas when he took a group to Wales. “I had arranged to take Christmas off, then a tour to North Wales came up, and I could take my wife. But then she found she couldn’t get time off, so it was the first Christmas I spent on my own.
We went to Bodelwyddan Castle and I had a lovely room. The food and entertainment was fantastic.
“Then the manager came to speak to me. It was Christmas Eve and he had arranged for guests to go to the Midnight Mass at the nearby Catholic Church if they wanted. But there were too many people for the minibuses and they would have had to start taking people there at 2100hrs. He asked if I could take people in the coach. I said it depends what time the service finishes as I had been driving all day and could not drive after 0020hrs.
“I wasn’t allowed to drive more than 15 hours. He said the service would finish quickly and they would be back by 0020hrs. So, I took them down and there was a lot of appreciation for my help. But it is all about being flexible and doing what’s needed. People think well of you if you do things like that. I am happy to help if I can, it doesn’t cost anything but your time.”
Looking back over the past year since winning the award, Adrian comments: “I can see how winning the award has benefited me as a person. I am more aware of people watching what I am doing and noting what I am doing. It has made me a better driver, because I have always got that awareness in the back of my mind.”
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