Coaching in the Future

The CPT’s annual Coaching Conference took the title of Tomorrow’s World this year, examining how the industry could change in the coming years. James Day reports

The Confederation of Passenger Transport held its annual Coaching Conference on 5 December, which was hosted in partnership with Irizar UK at the Pera Business Park in Melton Mowbray.

Irizar brought along five vehicles which it displayed outside. Four new dealer-white vehicles included a pair of Irizar i6 coaches and two higher-spec Irizar i6s vehicles. One of these was to Irizar’s 130 year anniversary specification, containing 53 seats to an alternative spec including different piping which corresponds to the vehicle’s curtains.

Also on display was a second-hand 63-plate Irizar i6, which had been retrofitted with a Baumot system to take it up Euro VI standards. The system replaced a retrofit from the now defunct Greenurban, and is in the process of gaining CVRAS accreditation.

Incoming CPT President, Steve Whiteway, played host on the day. He thanked the suppliers sponsoring and exhibiting at the event, which he called the unsung heroes of the industry.

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Graham Vidler
Chief Executive of CPT UK

Delivering his keynote address, Graham Vidler said: “When I joined CPT seven months ago, it was clear from the outset it needed to represent both bus and coach. While it’s buses that often grab the political headlines, coach plays a vital and often underappreciated role in transporting people across the country.

“We all know that, but the challenge is making sure people outside the industry do. We have been focused on taking the issues which affect this industry to the very heart of Government. We’ve been talking to the Prime Minister’s transport advisor, London’s Mayor and Deputy Mayor and senior officials at Transport for London about issues which threaten to hold this industry back.”

Graham said that while there is not an easy answer to PSVAR, he didn’t think it would befit the industry to roll-back accessibility legislation. “Neither do I think we can let lawmakers proceed without realising the full consequences of the law they have made. Our approach has been and will continue to be based on transparent pragmatic dialogue with the Department for Transport (DfT) and other partners.

“The two-year derogation announced last month may not feel great for those who have invested in PSVAR compliant vehicles already, or those who can’t see the possibility of investing in new or upgraded vehicles over those two years, but I do think it is an essential first step in enabling the industry to continue delivering its vital role in home to school services. Doing anything else will risk letting our customers and ultimately the industry down.”

Julie Hartley
Sales Director of Irizar UK

Following a video detailing some of the developments at Irizar as the company celebrates its 130th anniversary, Julie Hartley provided a presentation entitled ‘Moving forward: A commitment to innovation and sustainability.’

“Everything we’re doing at the moment is about driving down fuel consumption,” said Julie. “CO2, the next big thing in terms of emissions, is all about fuel. If we can improve fuel efficiency, we decrease the amount of CO2. It’s a direct correlation.

“25% of greenhouse gas pollution is caused by transport. Of that, 72% is road transport, and of that 72%, 30% is made of trucks, coaches and buses. We’re not impacting hugely, but we’re still an important sector in terms of emissions.”

Julie said that the Euro standards of engines has progressed so far on particulates and nitrous oxides that it cannot realistically get any better, which is why CO2 in the new target.

“From 1 September this year, engines moved from Euro VI step C, to step D,” she continued. “It represents an improvement in fuel consumption of around 6%. From September 2021, all new coaches will need to comply with step E. As yet, Euro VII is undefined. We don’t know when it is coming or what it is.

“We’re now being targeted with a new process called Vehicle Energy Consumption Calculation Tool (VECTO). It’s a European Commission tool for classifying CO2 and will lead to us having a sticker on every vehicle – a pollution and fuel consumption certificate, which will have a grading system similar to a washing machine.

“Monitoring of coach and bus is expected to start in 2022. The monitoring will form an average, which will in turn form a baseline from which penalties will be decided. Monitoring has already started on trucks, which will be required to improve fuel consumption or CO2 emissions by 15% from the baseline by 2025. By 2030, a 30% improvement will be required, which isn’t possible with an internal combustion engine.

“We’ve got a hybrid built already, which was delivered here in 2017. It’s not plug-in – it is a mild hybrid with a conventional Cummins 6.7 litre engine which can move on pure electric when it’s moving very slow and starting off.

That vehicle in our tests has given us around a 10-15% improvement in fuel over a conventional Irizar i4.

“The next stage is to look at bigger batteries, motors and engines. At the moment, we don’t think long-distance travel is feasible with electric coaches.

“Our next electric hybrid will look to be able to switch off diesel fully and travel emission-free into cities. Once out of the geofenced area, it can switch back to diesel for range. It could use diesel or might be CNG – we don’t know yet.”

Richard Turfitt
Senior Traffic Commissioner

With a general election looming, purdah restricted a lot of what Richard Turfitt could talk about at the conference this year, to the point he had considered pulling out of the line-up. However, he remained a part of the event in order to demonstrate the traffic commissioners’ commitment to the coach industry.

“I spend a lot of my time talking to people who are in trouble, but I value talking to responsible operators who are engaged and want to get it right,” he said. “The right thing to do though is to avoid us entirely – success for me in this role would be me being out of a job.”

Richard highlighted a common pitfall for responsible operators, which was not notifying the Office of the Traffic Commissioner of changes. “Too often we’re having to communicate with operators and companies who forgot to tell us about changes – we need to know who we’re regulating,” he said.

“The fitness of individual directors is an essential element of us making an assessment of repute. If there are changes in management, let us know so we can carry out the proper checks. We can’t treat you any differently to any other operator.”

Richard also spoke about transport managers and directors. He said: “We place a lot of trust in the person at the top of the pyramid for ensuring compliance. Don’t lose sight of that. I’ve seen too many boards of directors who have come before me and said ‘but we’ve employed this transport manager.’ That does not shift responsibility away. The person at the top needs to understand the duties that the operating company has signed up to.

“We try to break down what an effective transport manager is. In fact – we’ve spent two pages in one of the statutory documents setting it out in the hope you would steal them and include them in your contracts of employment – I’m genuinely inviting operators to do that.

“The effective transport manager has to not just keep up to date themselves, but also make sure the operation is up to date.

“How is a transport manager meant to do an effective job when they are run ragged because of the commercial pressures being put on the individual manager? They’ve got to have the tools, feedback and support.

“We’ve been saying to transport managers that they should know their own value. I don’t see cases so much any more where external transport managers are being paid below the minimum wage, but it is important they understand their worth to the operation. They are the ones meeting the statutory duty of continuous and effective management. It’s their name and hard-won CPC on the line.”

Steven Salmon
International Manager at CPT UK

Another of Steven Salmon’s excellent talks on Brexit and its potential effect on the industry began the middle session of the day. He highlighted that the withdrawal agreement negotiated with the EU contains no mention of road passenger transport.

He said the most important thing a deal with the EU would bring is a transition period. Quoting the document, he said: “A deal would include a transition period during which the EU will treat the UK as if it were a member state, with the exception of participation in the EU institutions and government structures.

“When we were talking about Brexit at the end of October, the initial transition period was planned to run until the 31 December next year. If we leave at some point next year with a deal, that transition period may go on beyond that, and may be extended in overall length.

“In that period, a whole raft of agreement will be negotiated between the UK and the EU, and it’s possible to build something about coaches into that agreement. It would be quite ambitious to do that, because if you look around Europe and the market rights of coach operators from the neighbours of the EU, I cannot think of any country whose coach operators have got the same rights within the EU that EU operators have. It’s highly unlikely the UK will negotiate a deal that will allow you to do everything you can do at the moment. It’s very difficult to find any benefits of Brexit for our particular sector, but a deal gives us breathing space.

“If we leave without a deal there will be no general transition period, but when the 31 October deadline was approaching the EU had offered to extend the road transport legislation until the end of July 2020. Even if we leave without a deal, we might get a road transport specific period where we might get a chance to sort ourselves out.

“Both these roads lead to the Interbus agreement. The UK currently belongs in Interbus because we are in the EU – we are not a signatory in our own right, but if and when we leave the EU, we will have the opportunity to join.

“The Interbus agreement does not allow for cabotage. We discovered – unfortunately – that it’s impossible for operators outside the EU to do cabotage in the EU, and the bad news is that while we thought cabotage was carrying people within the same country, the EU thinks it is carrying people within the whole of the EU. It does permit travel on the territory of any party and also through a non-party, provided the destination of the trip is on the territory of one of the parties.” Interbus parties currently include the EU as a whole, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Steven said Interbus will not require operators to do anything they do not already do, though it does make it more difficult for the UK to diverge from the rest of Europe. However, Driver CPC is not a requirement under Interbus for any party.

Steven continued: “Perhaps the most significant non-member is Switzerland. It would require tours to be structured in a way that Switzerland is never a destination. It would be quite easy for a British operator to do a tour which pops into Switzerland, but more difficult if the tour is staying over for several nights or appears to go to Switzerland and then return home.

“Switzerland is unlikely to join the Interbus agreement. The Swiss are naturally cautious, and the Interbus agreement would require them to give access to an awful lot of coaches from all Interbus members.”

Steven said that drivers and passengers will all be able to travel visa-free into the Schengen area (EU countries aside from Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Ireland, along with Switzerland, Norway and Iceland) for 90 days in any 180 day period, which will be controlled by stamps on passports.

“If you go back and forth across the border often, your passport will fill up and your presence in the area will be checked manually,” he explained. “This will take time.

“The good news is the visa-free agreements don’t apply to people who are working, but tourist coach drivers are treated as business visitors, not workers, and will not be deemed to be working for visa purposes.”

Simon Hart
Knowledge Management and Brexit Lead Partner at RSM UK

Audit, tax and consulting firm RSM UK is to become a commercial partner of the CPT from January 2020, and Simon Hart represented the organisation by speaking at the conference. He also spoke primarily about Brexit, providing an engaging talk about its context in the wider world.

He pointed out that all of the G7 nation economies are trending towards economic contraction, though the UK is performing reasonably well. “Our economy is 20% manufacturing and 80% service industry,” he said. “It’s the complete opposite of Germany, which has really tanked because of the effect of the US-China trade war.”

Simon highlighted a question asked by the Bank of England decision makers’ panel to its members about what each of their top three uncertainties were.

“Unsurprisingly, Brexit ranked highly, but astonishly only among 55% of business leaders,” he said. “That might be down to Brexit fatigue, and it is nonetheless still the biggest factor.”

Following a long and detailed discussion about the complex nature of Europe and the many different agreements European nations are involved with, Simon noted that there are polar opposite views on the two parties most likely to form a majority government after the election, which could lead to a confirmatory referendum, renegotiation or Brexit done before the end of January. “What I’m saying is a week away from this election, we have no more knowledge than we had three and a half years ago, which is astonishing,” he commented.

On the subject of no-deal planning, Simon asserted that while much of the government documentation on the subject is ‘turgid and doesn’t tell you too much,’ it was surprising how many businesses hadn’t looked at it.

“There are some useful nuggets in there along with a lot of nothingness, but you should have a look regardless and see what is relevant to you.”
Simon highlighted one key effect the Brexit situation is having on UK businesses – levels of investment in fixed assets and capital, which is slowing.

“That’s understandable, because businesses don’t know what’s going to happen and are holding on to some cash,” he said. “They will perhaps employ more people in short term contracts, or not invest in infrastructure, or indeed new coaches.”

Ian Wright
Head of Innovation and Partnerships at  Transport Focus

Ian Wright questioned whether coaches, in the eyes of the public, are a well kept secret or something to avoid, based on research carried out by Transport Focus alongside Heathrow Airport on express coach services. The research involved speaking with focus groups around the country, work with vulnerable passengers and people travelling through the airport, amongst other methods of gathering data.

The research found that nearly two-thirds of people spoken to never used scheduled coaches in the UK, with people less likely to use the services as their income or age increased.
Ian broke the results down into users and non-users. Notably, when asked questions about coach travel, a significant proportion of non-user responses to each question said ‘don’t know.’

“Non-users frequently don’t know where to start a coach journey,” Ian said. “They may not even know who the main players in the market are. It’s often viewed as a cheap form of transport, which can be good or can have negative perceptions. It’s important to push the idea of value for money, rather than necessarily pure cheapness.

“There is definitely a perception among non-users that coach stations are places to avoid. That may have been true in some cases in the past, but as with many of these things there’s a historic perception at play.”

While most non-users thought coach services would be too infrequent or less comfortable than a car, most were aware of facilities like WiFi available to passengers.

Ian highlighted one quote in particular, which read: “I think it’s got a stigma on it for me, maybe because they have £1 to London plastered on the side, which seems too good to be true.”

Moving onto the more positive ‘well kept secret’ angle, the research found roughly the opposite results from regular coach users, who found the coach a pleasant experience almost across the board, mostly thinking the coach was good value rather than cheap. It was noted that even regular users find the coach doesn’t always pick up from the most convenient place for them. Coach users were also found to like the sense of privacy on the mode, since they always get a seat and don’t have to sit face-to-face with other passengers.

“There is a need to change behaviours if we’re going to grow the market,” Ian said. “One of the things we did with non-users was to pay for them to go and take a few journeys and recall some of their experiences. It really challenges those perceptions.

“First time coach passengers are often pleasantly surprised by the experience. It’s not the rust bucket they expected, the driver was great and despite not having to pay, they were aware that it is not very expensive. They tended to enjoy the journey.”

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