Dialling up the service: London Dial-a-Ride

Transport for London’s specialist mobility service, London Dial-a-Ride, continues to provide a vital service. James Day finds out about the latest developments from James Mead

The Dial-a-Ride branch of TfL provides door-to-door transport for registered passengers who have mobility needs which prevent them from using TfL’s wider public transport network. CBW last visited London Dial-a-Ride five years ago as part of our Superfeature coverage of TfL – CBW1130. How has the organisation progressed since then? I spoke to James Mead, the current General Manager, to find out.

James has worked for Transport for London (TfL) for 15 years and has been at the helm of London Dial-a-Ride for the last three of those years. He previously worked primarily on cycle hire and congestion charging. At the time he joined Dial-a-Ride, he was appointed General Manager of Fleet Services, though the job title has since changed to General Manager of Dial-a-Ride. Originally from Iowa in the USA, he moved to the UK around 20 years ago.
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[/wlm_nonmember] [wlm_ismember] CBW: How have recent technological developments changed Dial-a-Ride?

James Mead (JM): From an internal standpoint, the changes in technology have really impacted us, in terms of how we do our scheduling and more importantly how we work with our drivers and customers.

One of the things we brought in during the last two years is an automated call list for the drivers, which is essentially an app on a smartphone. Previously we would send them out with call sheets and trip sheets for the day on a fax. Now they get it directly on the phone, which makes it a lot easier to change journeys if need be.

There are also some real passenger benefits. Those passengers who want to can sign up for text alerts, and they get a notification 10 minutes before we arrive to let them know when the driver will be at their door. It gives the person the confidence that we’re going to be there, and also lets them know we’re on the way so they can get themselves ready to meet us.

This is an extension of the Trapeze system we use. We worked with Trapeze to develop this app to go with it.

CBW: What is the scale of the fleet currently?

JM: The fleet at Dial-a-Ride now consists of 300 vehicles, which we are in the process of refreshing. As of the end of March, we expect there to be 90 new ULEZ-compliant Euro VI minibuses in the fleet. By October 2021, the entire fleet should be replaced. The new vehicles currently being delivered are Mellor Tucana IIs.

The fact that they are ULEZ compliant is great, but there are also passenger benefits. They have better heating and air-conditioning than the old vehicles, better safety systems on board such as city braking which can help a driver avoid accidents and other things as well.

The key is to make sure we’re compliant with ULEZ of course, but within those regulations it’s a real opportunity to make the buses that much better.

CBW: How was the Tucana II chosen?

JM: We went out to procurement for the first phase of 90 vehicles and will go out once again for the second group. One of the things we’re hoping to do is test the market to see if there is a hybrid or electric vehicle available. The first time around there were not any bidders that were providing that option for us, because the unique requirements we have – low-floors for example – make it more difficult to build that sort of vehicle.

Technology is moving rapidly in the electric vehicle space, so you never know. Maybe next time around we will get some different options.

We have a number of fairly specific requirements around safety, passenger comfort and other considerations to meet the needs of passengers with specific mobility issues. Mellor was very competitive on price and met all of our requirements. They were also able to give us real confidence in their ability to deliver to our timescales.

A number of CCTV cameras are included in the specification to ensure the safety and security of people on board. Also, in the rare instances where we have an accident, we are able to review the footage and see if there are any learnings for the drivers or use it as evidence for insurance claims.

CBW: How do you recruit drivers?

JM: We have 300 drivers, almost all of which are full time. We have a comprehensive training programme. New drivers go through our training school, which deals with the three main aspects of the role. Many may come from professional driving roles, but we teach them the skills they need to drive our vehicles. It’s a different sort of vehicle for people who came from a bus driving role which requires moving in and out of tight spaces on residential streets.

We also work on the different skills required to assist our passengers getting on and off the bus. On a big bus network, it’s not necessary to know how to get a passenger on the bus without hurting your back, for example.

The third thing we concentrate on is passenger care, which includes a few things. We have a social role with our passengers as well. For many of our passengers, the driver may be the only person they see all week. Drivers will often know their passengers well, and being able to provide that social interaction is very important. They also get training on how to spot dementia and other illnesses. Passengers can change over time, and our drivers need to be alert to those changes. If they see something, and notice that a particular passenger isn’t getting around as well as they used to be, they might get in touch with somebody here in passenger services so we can talk to social services or healthcare professionals to let them know.

For the right candidates, we will pay for them to get their D1 licence and teach them our way of driving. It’s not a requirement for new applicants to have been a professional driver, though most of the people who apply have driving qualifications. We don’t use volunteers – all drivers are TfL employees.

CBW: Is it difficult to recruit new drivers?

JM: We just ran a recruitment campaign, which involved a YouTube video, where we wanted to recruit eight drivers. We had over 900 applicants. It shows that people really understand the value of the service.

CBW: How do you handle vehicle maintenance?

JM: All of our maintenance is carried out in-house. Some repairs are done at the depot – we have nine located throughout London, each of which has some fleet assistance and can carry out running repairs.

Anything major comes to our facility on Mandela Way. We also carry out regular maintenance there every 10 weeks – a full service overhaul.

It’s a small team, but we’ve also had a couple of apprentices recently. Getting them in was great, and they have done very well for us. It has been a great example of how apprenticeships can work. After the conclusion of their apprenticeships, one joined the team and the other went elsewhere.

Part of the reason we have such a large number of vehicles is that we do such regular routine maintenance. There are always a fair number off the road. We also need to make sure we have resilience in each of the depots. Each depot will have spare buses around. If need be, we can get all the buses on the road.

CBW: How has the call centre developed?

JM: It’s about the same size it was five years ago. A few things have helped us maintain that size. Some of it is more efficient scheduling and changes in incoming call volumes. We’ve managed to maintain the levels of service.

It’s important – people have to be able to get through to us to book their journeys. What we would like to do in the future is provide more of an online service than we do today. Most of our passengers still prefer ringing the contact centre, but for those who want to be able to come through on the internet, we’d like to be able to do more of that.

We’d like to be able to provide a more automated system for those customers who want to book online and like their independence. In fact, we are going out to tender for a new booking and scheduling system, which we would like to see implemented by December 2020.

CBW: What makes the Dial-a-Ride service so valuable?

JM: It’s just about getting people from A to B who otherwise might not be able to leave their homes. They would not be able to participate in life without Dial-a-Ride. That value is always there and what we care about the most.

CBW: Do you think demand for the service will increase in the future?

JM: I don’t know whether demand will increase or not, because TfL is working so hard to make the main transport network so accessible. We’re doing everything we can so that people are able to be as independent as they possibly can and not rely solely on the Dial-a-Ride service. That’s having a real impact on how elderly and disabled people get around town. They are able to use the network much more easily than they were five years ago. On the other hand, we know that the population of London is growing older and there’s likely to be an increase in demand from that standpoint. More people live longer and will face mobility challenges.

It’s a balancing act. The increased accessibility of TfL’s network counterbalances the increased number of people with mobility issues. We want to make sure we’re in a position to meet demand if it does grow.

CBW: What are your thoughts on the new on-demand service TfL is trialling?

JM: I think it’s got real potential – it could be great, and could work very well together with Dial-a-Ride. We have a real range of mobility issues facing our passengers. Some folks just need a little bit of help. They might live a long way from an accessible bus stop, for example, but won’t necessarily need a specially-trained driver or a specialist vehicle.

At the moment, there’s not another option for them, but something like a demand responsive bus might be great for passengers who have lower mobility barriers to deal with.

By the same token, we’re hoping the people who deliver these demand-responsive buses in the future will be taking accessibility issues into account.

We want as many people as possible to be able to travel independently and if demand responsive buses help with that, that’s great. We also know there is always going to be a need for Dial-a-Ride services for those people who face larger mobility issues. That’s where we would really like to help. We think it can work hand-in-glove and could be really successful for everyone if it does take off.

We’ve been actively involved in looking at the accessibility aspect of demand-responsive trials to make sure the vehicles they use are as accessible as possible, particularly when it goes commercial.

CBW: How expensive is Dial-a-Ride to run, and is it under threat?

JM: It is an expensive service to operate, but I don’t think it is under threat. The mayor and TfL have made a real commitment – we spend about £30m per year on Dial-a-Ride, because we believe everybody in London needs to have access to everything London offers, whether that is work, school or social events. They need to be able to get there, and it’s part of TfL’s responsibility to help them.

TfL’s motto is ‘Every Journey Matters,’ and that is perhaps never truer than for the folks who use Dial-a-Ride.

I don’t think it’s under threat at all. Yes, it’s incumbent upon us to be as efficient and cost-effective as we can possibly be, but the commitment TfL has made in actions like buying new buses has shown that it is determined to support the service.

CBW: How have passenger habits changed?

JM: The reasons people travel are different than they used to be. It used to be that years ago, you would take groups of people to day centres or council-run leisure facilities, or the local shops.

These days with the growth of online shopping and home deliveries and so many social clubs closing due to the budget restrictions of local councils and lower demand, things have changed.

Instead of taking many people to the same place, we tend to have many more individual journeys than we used to, with people wanting to travel further than they did before. It has been a real challenge for us to change our operating model, as the way people are using the service has changed.

Before we went to procurement we had a few 15-seater buses we used to use to transport groups, but I’ve barely seen them used in the last three years. We haven’t gone out to procure any replacements for them.
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