Sue Arrowsmith, External Business Relationship Manager at First West of England, talks to Jade Smith about her involvement in the community engagement side of the business
Sue joined First Bus eight years ago as a self-employed salesperson in Wales, before she came to Bristol and took over the West of England area as well.
She picked up the story: “I moved from going to small businesses to larger ones and was responsible for introducing the corporate travel scheme, where commuters get a discount on bus travel. From that I started to develop relationships with stakeholders and other people I came across.
“My current role, External Business Relationship Manager, is a new position. I enjoy helping people and establishing where the business can help the community. This role is all about exploring innovative ways that we can immerse First West of England within the community.”
Community groups
“It is great to be able to help small communities,” Sue said. “We want to be embedded in our local communities as a company. First’s buses stand out in Bristol so we want to ensure our image is a positive one.”
Sue also manages First’s travel shops in the West of England – one in Bristol bus station Bath and Wells. There is a local manager in Bristol that oversees them and Sue supervises him. Currently Sue is working on various projects such as looking at refurbishing bus stations and improving services like the café to make it a nicer area to wait for a bus.[wlm_nonmember][…]
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“I’m in a number of groups,” Sue said. “Around four years ago I joined the Bristol Women’s Commission. The previous mayor set up a number of commissions to report to him – the Women’s Commission was one of them.
“There are many community groups within the Bristol Women’s Commission and they reach out to various people. That was my introduction to community engagement and now I’m actively involved in that area. I attend events on behalf of the business and my involvement has spiralled from that.
“I am also the key contact with the Chamber of Commerce Business West. That involves colleges, universities, shopping centres etc. It initiated from the ticket sales area but then became more of a relationship which we’ve developed so they are major stakeholders for us.
“I’m also with Bristol City Council where there’s a congestion task group. I represent Bristol Women’s Commission in these meetings, along with James Freeman who of course represents First West of England and representatives from many other key organisations in the city. As Bristol is one of the main cities in the country that suffers from that we need to find a solution. The group discusses how we can get people moving better, whether it’s by buses or another mode of transport. Getting people moving and out of their cars will not only alleviate the pressure on the roads but it will also ensure improved air quality, which is at the top of everyone’s agenda.”
Tickets
Sue looks after the back office for mTickets. In September that expanded with the new university students.
“I create the tickets in the back office, upload them, manage them and create reports. It’s an extension of what I do with embedding First in the community. M-ticketing is a key strategy not only to speed up the boarding times to get everyone to their destinations quicker, but reducing the time the bus is spent idling at the stops, which also helps cut emissions. A lot of passengers I’ve spoken to who use them say it’s a quicker system and they wish more people would utilise them to reduce journey times.”
Explaining the part of tickets within community engagement, Sue said: “A few of the community events I’ve got involved with start with someone asking us if we can help them out with some discounted bus tickets. One of the longest-running schemes we have is with the City of Sanctuary, which got in contact with me through the local Chamber of Commerce, Business West. For people that don’t have status to be in the country, the City of Sanctuary is there to help them get up and running and go through the necessary legalities. They have to travel around the city to go to various appointments, which is where we come in.
“Three years ago we set up a match funding scheme with the City of Sanctuary. Every month we provide them with £400 worth of tickets, of which they raise 50% of the money through the community. They are really grateful for that. What might seem like a small gesture has a real impact with these people’s lives. They’re under extreme amount of pressure and even the smallest thing, like a bus ticket, can make a big difference.
“Other requests would be from charities doing away days. We do a lot of work with small groups, particularly involving children, where people have been taken on trips where they’ve got free entry to a location, but they still need travel. In those situations we’ve donated free bus tickets. I’ve had some lovely cards back from children thanking us for the day out on the bus.
“It’s progressed through organisations who have come to us directly and those who have heard about us through others.”
Homeless bus
In the centre of Bristol lies the bus and coach station which is adjacent to an area known as the Bearpit. Sue said it is an area where a lot of homeless people congregate and has a lot of community activity going on.
“I’m part of the Bearpit stakeholders group where we help people help themselves and offer support,” Sue said. “Sometimes those who are sleeping rough come into the bus station so we try and help them.
“Last year the mayor of Bristol was asking for help for homeless people and First Bus was approached about donating some buses. We made two buses available to be converted for the homeless. They were both coming out of service for us but were still roadworthy, so they can either be static or moved around to wherever they’re needed. We spent a lot of time stripping the buses out and one will be donated to Help the Homeless, which will be up and running soon. We debranded them by repainting them blue and took out the seats so the charities can commission carpenters to build beds onboard. Similar projects have happened across the country.
“Now we’re working on an annual plan for the next financial year. I’ll be speaking to all the business managers across the West of England in First Bus, gathering ideas, finding out about local charities to our operating companies and just seeing how we can strengthen that. We need a plan of what we want to do, and then we can grow from there. We want the West of England business to be more visible helping people and organisations at a grassroots level. If we accomplish this, it will make big strides to endearing the business to the community.”
Charity partner
FirstGroup’s current charity partner is Prostate Cancer UK which the company has been linked with for three years. Sue said that campaign has been very effective: “Over the three years with Prostate Cancer UK we did fundraising in local depots and offices with cake bakes and dress down days. There were also bigger national campaigns alongside advertising on our leaflets, timetables and posters with the Prostate Cancer UK logo.
“The total fundraising across the entire company is around £1m. The awareness is fantastic, which is another aspect that attracts the charities, as well as the funding.”
“Recently I was involved in the selection process for our new charity partnership which will start next year,” Sue continued. “Each member of staff gets a chance to vote and we had around 110 charities nominated.
“I had a small part to play in the selection process so we got down to around 60 charities. Across the whole company there were representatives and together we reduced the number of charities even more and asked those to pitch to us. Now we’re down to our final four – Action for Children, Age UK, Stroke Association and Samaritans – and every employee can now vote for their favourite. We really felt these would resonate strongly with both our employees and the people that use our services.
“There were lots of worthy causes. As we’re quite a large company the main criteria for us was that we wanted charities that could be represented across the whole of the business and not just locally, as we work closely with local charities separately.”
Accessibility and awareness
First makes Safe and Better Journey Cards, which depict various requests so passengers can easily and discreetly communicate with the bus driver any specific needs they may have. Other operators offer similar aids.
Sue said: “Our Safe and Better Journey Cards provide a number of options, a popular one being “Please wait for me to sit down.” There’s also some designed for passengers new to the system asking to be told when they have reached a certain stop. Drivers have been put through a lot of training to make them more aware about passengers’ needs since these cards were produced.
“The cards are going to be relaunched in Bristol, working with both Bristol City Council and the West of England combined authority. We’re aiming to make this standard across the industry. I talk to various groups, in particular the Bristol Older People’s Forum, and we’ve taken some cards in to make people aware they are available. It could be what gives them a little more confidence to try using the bus.
“The idea is to keep these in a wallet with a concessionary bus pass, for example, and keep the messages simple.”
First Bus has audio next-stop announcements on most of its buses in the inner city. Sue explained that the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) was heavily involved with this and she was involved in running some “Swap Me” events. These events involve taking buses out to a site with the RNIB who provided glasses that simulate different visual restrictions.
“That was very informative and is now a key part of our training we give drivers when they go through our driving school,” Sue enthused. “The drivers guide each other on and off a bus to understand what it is like for those with visual impairments.
“Similar events have taken place with cyclists to increase awareness about the importance of bus drivers being able to see them. The cyclists sat in the cab of the bus and the bus drivers cycled around to see the situation from each others’ point-of-view. Those events were also very successful.”
Conclusions
Sue said: “I love the fact that every day is different and I’m in quite a privileged position where I can make a difference to local communities. First West of England is a key part of the cities we operate in and are proud to be there. I need to ensure the message gets out there that we are supporting our communities.
“There’s never enough time to do all the work!”
Sue said that community work is really worthwhile: “Never underestimate the value of giving something back and going out and talking to your passengers.
“It’s important to be involved in the community, because people are far more responsive if they get to know you. It’s just taking the time to do all of that and you don’t necessarily reap the benefits right away, but you do in the long-term. You can’t expect the public’s opinion of you to change overnight.”[/wlm_ismember]
