Our insider highlights how administering a typical coach operation involved in education transport has become much more complicated for all involved, despite advances in office technology
There are of course those past the age of 50 who went to work in coach offices when the only machinery was a typewriter, perhaps a telex machine and a complete room dedicated to a Rank Xerox photocopier for which each department that used it had to sign for the number of copies taken.
The diary was a large book with daily spreads that were roughly two A3 sheets wide and everything was written in pencil. The detail was manually done in the traffic office which took a long time. The typing pool would then type out each work ticket, a process that could take several hours, before passing them back to the traffic office again for ‘despatch’.[wlm_nonmember][…]
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Typists had carbon paper for the multiple copy letters they had to produce and swore a lot when they made a mistake. That was before Tipp-Ex which was originally invented in 1951 by Bette Nesmith Graham in her kitchen as the first correction fluid. She began marketing it in 1956 as Mistake Out although it was later renamed Liquid Paper. It was only in 1965 that Tipp-Ex GmbH started to produce the white liquid we know today.
As a result of the invention of Tipp-Ex it became possible to erase an error made using a typewriter. That was done by backspacing to the letter that was to be changed, correction paper would be placed in front of the ribbon, and the mistyped letter would be re-typed. The system only worked if the typewriter repositioned the re-typed letter in exactly the same place as originally typed, which could be problematic if returning to a previous line, but it was nevertheless an innovation that made Bette a multimillionaire.
When the telex came in it was a good way to send a message between depots. However, it meant many honed their typing skills because they could not stand the annoying bell that was like an alarm clock repeating and were prepared to do anything to silence it. Then we were promised a paperless society when personal computers came in. Coach operators did not in the main really start to get computerised until the late 1980s and it has all evolved from there, but paperless? I don’t think so.
What was not required years ago in the marketing or daily operation departments was a health and safety risk assessment by a school, a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check or any of the other nanny state bits of paper. Whilst that appears to be a harsh statement, it is made within the context of reality, rather than a criticism.
The reduction in school and educational-related business that coach operators are now experiencing has come about for a number of reasons. Government budgets have been reduced, so fairly obviously the pot size available to schools to spend has reduced. That means the parental contribution has had to increase but sadly very often that means it has become unaffordable.
Consequently demand for coach hire goes down.
I’ve also noted that recently teaching unions report that their members would rather not go on school trips because they do not want to accept any liability of any incident or accident (events that are not of course in any way wilful) that might fall on their shoulders. Schools are facing higher insurance premiums, or having to maker costly ‘pay outs’ as a result of a compensation culture that seems to grow unchecked.
A teacher can spend a good three to four days filling in risk assessment paperwork from start to finish. I heard a teacher recently who came on during one of those BBC local radio stations phone-ins on this very subject and reiterated the point by saying his colleagues would rather not take on a trip or go in case anything happened and it all became litigious. It really is a sad reflection on our society.
The DBS ‘paperwork’ which requires enhanced checks to be made on your driving staff now has many more questions that have to ‘be cleared’. This doubtless is a consequence and became a necessity following high profile celebrity cases such as that of Jimmy Savile – sad because it has required a change in approach to so many things as well. Even sadder because traditionally a lot of driving staff could not read, or were dyslexic, but nevertheless found ways that enabled them to fulfil their daily tasks successfully. With computer technology it’s now all done on a grid displayed on a screen that anyone can check. The computer programme does it all and ‘back covering’ is assured at any number of levels.
The unfortunate consequence of all of this for normal, decent, progressive coach businesses that are largely based on educational transport is that they’re completely hampered and restricted in everything they do. Are you sure you’re ticking all the boxes?
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