Southdown PSV, better known as just Southdown Buses, has been serving the North Downs for 17 years. Its Managing Director is Steve Wallis, who talks to Andy Izatt about how this finely-tuned business has been successfully developed in one of the toughest bus operating environments in the country
Despite its operating area falling largely within London’s green belt and firmly within one of the most vibrant, prosperous local economies in the country – one with particularly high levels of car ownership and use – Southdown PSV, based near Gatwick Airport in West Sussex, has developed over 17 years into a significant, quality provider of local bus services. Managing the business over the past three of those years has been Steve Wallis.
“I’d always had an interest in transport and particularly wanted to be involved with buses,” recalled Steve. “I come from Burgess Hill and was 18 when I obtained my PCV licence with Metrobus at South Godstone, becoming one of its youngest drivers. That’s where I first met Peter Larking and Gary Wood who are now my co-directors at Southdown PSV. Peter and Gary had established Metrobus in 1983. After they sold the business to Go-Ahead in 1999, Peter set up Southdown PSV with Steve Swain in 2002, primarily to deal in vehicles, but there was also a small school bus operation. Gary joined them later in 2006 after they secured local service contracts from Surrey County Council for the 324 (Copthorne-Redhill), 409 (Croydon-East Grinstead), 410 (Westerham-Redhill) and 411 (Redhill- Chelsham Common). That took the operation up to 12 buses and I joined as operations controller. [wlm_nonmember][…]
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“Further growth followed, particularly as a result of providing vehicles for rail replacement services, and following a restructure in 2010, I was promoted to Operations Manager. When Engineering Director Simon Stamford left three years later, I had the opportunity to purchase shares in the business, a holding I was able to increase when Steve Swain resigned as Managing Director in 2016.
“Southdown PSV had changed from a dealership that ran a few buses to a bus company that did a bit of dealing and Steve wanted to step back and focus on dealing. That side of the company was separated out to become Chartwell Bus & Coach Sales, which he continues to run.
“While the operating business may still be called Southdown PSV, we had become known as Southdown Buses by then and now everyone knows us as simply as Southdown.”
Three years as MD
“I took over as Managing Director of Southdown PSV on 1 September 2016,” Steve Wallis continued. “We now operate 28 buses. Eight of those – three Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMCs, three Scania N230UD Enviro400s and two Scania N250UD Enviro400 MMCs – have been delivered new over the past three years alongside a further eight mid-life vehicles, all Plaxton President-bodied Volvo B7TLs acquired from Metroline.
“We wanted low-height buses for a new contract in 2016 and it was Bill Hiron at Stephensons of Essex who alerted us to there being three new Scania Enviro400s available as a result of a cancelled order. The fact we bought two more underlines how our relationship with Scania has grown. They have proved to be robust vehicles.
“The four 55-plate 11.3m East Lancs Myllennium-bodied Dennis Darts we operate are amongst our oldest buses. Very well built, reliable vehicles, they originated with the local authority’s Pegasus school bus project, but will be replaced before too long. We also have a 53-plate Pointer Dart and an 06-plate East Lancs Vyking B7TL, but otherwise the rest of the fleet are newer Enviro200s.
“I want to standardise the operation as much as possible because we don’t have an enormous amount of workshop space. Everything is based at our Silverwood Industrial Estate, Copthorne base in West Sussex where we have three workshop bays and storage. As far as possible we do all maintenance in-house including MOT preparation.”
Finely tuned operation
“We manage to run a modern fleet because we’re quite clever in interworking our 17-route operation,” Steve pointed out. “Route 357 (Selsdon-Reigate) is completely commercial while the 236 (Oxted-East Grinstead), 594 and 595 (both Oxted-Westerham) are fully tendered. The rest are a mix of both. Gary does the scheduling although we all contribute. Saving a few man hours or mileage all adds up. It’s key to the profitability of the business.
“While a coach firm might run a school route for a fixed amount per day, we’ll integrate it into a bus route that we’re already operating. It’s giving the local authority an alternative option that can save it money. Our network might seem a little bit complicated sometimes as a result, but it works. We make sure our buses work hard.
“An example of what we do would be the 657 which used to run term time only to Reigate College. While buses were very busy on that route, college times varied from day to day so students could sometimes have to wait. Another service coming off in the area helped open up the opportunity so we registered what we called the 357 to run a few journeys a day. It has built from there into what is essentially an hourly service through much of the day.
“This is a hard area to operate buses. Running any commercial routes is a significant achievement, but there are tendered services we have been able to make largely commercial. What is more, by interworking, we are able to guarantee some connections with other routes that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.
“Take the 410 which serves our main hub at Oxted. It’s essentially a commercial route that receives a small amount of ‘de minimis’ support on the Hurst Green section, but because it’s worked in with other services we also receive season ticket revenue. It would be very difficult for another operator to compete with us for those reasons.
“We went over to Ticketer ticketing in time for the start of the new school year in 2018 because a growing number of passengers wanted to be able to make contactless payments. It had a slow start because people didn’t realise we were now offering that facility, but we promoted it by making sure every one of our bus stops had a poster highlighting its availability. Month by month the amount of cash we take reduces and the number of contactless payments increases. I would say it’s now 60/40% in favour of cash and I think before too long it will be 50/50%. I could see us eventually going cashless, but I don’t think we’ll be the first operator in this area to do that.
“TAP, our pre-loaded card for school children, was introduced for us by Ticketer at the same time as contactless. Parents can load up value on the card that can only be spent on the bus. If the card is lost, we provide a replacement and the balance is transferred. Lose a £10 note, it’s gone forever. Take-up of TAP is not as high as with contactless, but we didn’t expect it to be. It’s designed for people who travel quite regularly or those that like to know they can jump on to one of our buses whenever they like and have money they can just use. There’s a clear customer benefit.
“We also introduced Smart Saver smartcard period tickets. It enables our passengers to use our services whenever they want between two dates and it’s very popular for college journeys. Paren
ts can pay annually, monthly, for the term or half term and, again, we’re happy with the take up. Our college journeys are very busy at certain pick up points, Caterham being one of them, and having smartcard ticketing really does speed up boarding compared to cash sales.
“We have season ticket agreements in Surrey, West Sussex and Kent, but all our tendered work is for Surrey, a fantastic authority to work with and one that’s especially proactive on the publicity side. It has even been prepared to post our own publicity in certain key areas. It wants our commercial services to succeed because it knows it will save it money if they do.
“Like all bus operators we’re losing some passengers, but we’re gaining new ones as well. Some of our routes will only ever be tendered. There just aren’t the people out there who want to travel, but there are others where ridership is growing, albeit very slowly.
“We carry a lot of older people and it’s important to keep reminding them of when our services operate. Otherwise it might slip their minds and they become more reliant on their cars. That means regular leaflet drops, which we don’t do through the postal service. No one likes receiving ‘junk mail’ so if our timetable leaflet comes through the letter box separately, we think they will be better received. Getting the message across to customers is so important.
“Using social media to communicate with passengers is also essential. That way, if there are any delays, we can tell them what the problems are. Many of our routes are close to the M25 motorway and if there’s congestion anywhere, we’re very good at putting the word out. We also make sure our phone lines are manned when our services are operating.
“I wouldn’t say congestion is a daily problem, but it is certainly a weekly concern. There can be several bad days, one after another. Then there can be periods when everything is fine. If there is a problem on a certain route, we may have a bus on layover we can slot in quite quickly. Because of the quite compact network we operate, we can swap things around and make it all work, which we’ve had to do on more than one occasion.
“What we would like to see is more bus lanes and priorities. Reigate is a particular problem. When the railway crossing gates come down there, it’s a nightmare. Redhill is not so much of a problem anymore, but when it goes wrong, it goes very wrong. We have regular meetings with Surrey County Council, which gives us and other operators the chance to highlight the issues. I think there is a will at the local authority to introduce bus lanes and priorities. I’m sure it would do more if the money was available.”
People driven
Said Steve: “Southdown PSV has four directors. Peter and Gary are part-time now, but myself and Engineering Director Francis Reed are full-time. Michael Miller is my Operations Manager and, as we both enjoy driving, we can quite often be found on rail replacement work, both pre-planned and emergency. That accounts for around 20% of turnover with the rest coming from our local bus operation. We don’t get involved in private hire.
“I don’t think bus and coach work really mixes. It attracts different types of driver and the regulations are quite different. I know I can run a bus every day at a profit. That would not necessarily be the case with a coach. Best to concentrate on what we’re good at, especially as there are enough coach firms in this area that do a decent enough job.
“We employ 43 full-time drivers, nine part-time and 13 casuals who help out on rail replacement work. There are also two duty managers and Francis has a team of engineers and cleaners.
“We’re always advertising for more casuals because there’s that much rail work, we can never have too many. If someone drives for us on that basis and enjoys what they’re doing, it would increase their chances of securing part-time work or a full-time job. We’re happy to accommodate the hours people want to do. There’s actually a waiting list of those who want to work here. Sadly, that means sometimes we have to let people go because they find work elsewhere before we can offer them something.
“Staff turnover is low. While other operators may have more earning potential, we look after our people in other ways, quite apart from accommodating the hours they want. The earliest start on local service is 0530hrs and the latest finish 2130hrs. We do some Sunday work, but there are no forced Sunday rotas. While we can be asked to undertake rail replacement at any time of the day or night, 365 days a year, it’s all done by staff who choose to do it. There is a loyalty bonus for those that have worked here more than five years that’s paid annually in subsequent years.
“Driver CPC training is undertaken onsite in our own training room. If it’s done properly I think it can be worthwhile and we try to make it relevant and interesting. I think including a first aid course is important as is providing customer service training.”
Business focus
“This business is profitable and we have a long term strategy for its continued development,” said Steve. “For an independent operator like Southdown, my membership of ALBUM is hugely beneficial and cost effective. Not only do I get to share best practice and debate solutions to problems with like-minded individuals, but it gives us an avenue for the voice of the smaller operator to be heard in the corridors of power, whether that be the DfT (Department for Transport), DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency), the Traffic Commissioners or other stakeholders. Whilst we share many problems across the wider industry, our perspective as a smaller, non-aligned bus operator can be a little different, and it is great to be able to channel our views and opinions to those who can shape our future.
“Our main competitor would be Go-Ahead- owned Metrobus, but there’s mutual respect between our two businesses and we get most of our rail work from Go-Ahead rail companies. While I’m comfortable with the size of the operation, we always see what we could slot in when tenders come round.
“If there are new opportunities, we wouldn’t turn away from them, but if this business is going to grow, it would need to become a lot bigger rather than just adding a couple more buses. We’re at a size now where we would need to invest in extra support staff such as additional engineers and a duty manager. I can’t see that kind of opportunity occurring in this area unless there’s a change with another operator.
“I’ve been Managing Director for three years and would like to think I’ve developed the business for the better in that time. It’s important to keep evolving, whether it’s fleet improvements or finding additional work. That could be with our network, rail-related or by becoming more involved in local events and festivals. Community engagement is important to us and we do our best to support local charities and activities. What I like about them is how different they are to the ‘day to day.’ I continue to find it all quite exciting.”
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