Jonathan Taylor reports from the parliamentary launch of the Women in Bus & Coach network
It’s always alarming (and I’m putting it mildly) when you come across people behaving badly in our industry. Ours is an industry where safety and positive, direct contact with our customers are paramount to success. So the quality of service that has to be delivered isn’t just occasional, it’s pretty much 24/7, whether you’re in the bus or the coach sector.
Perhaps one aspect of our industry, unconscious bias, has let us down in the past. Unfortunately, some people let bias, rudeness and discrimination cloud their judgement and use them against colleagues who they think don’t fit in. It’s extremely uncomfortable being made to feel that you don’t fit in to a job which you want to succeed in. Apart from being wrong and unacceptable, this behaviour gets in the way of growing a business successfully to the benefit of all its employees and customers.
Perhaps along with the legal framework that has, for decades now, made discrimination in the workplace illegal, these negative people just need to be shown a better way. Perhaps they can be shown that everyone who is good enough for the job does fit in, whatever their gender, religion, or race.
Our industry has been, like many others, very much a male-dominated workplace throughout most of the twentieth century, but has slowly changed in this century to accept women as equally capable for all at all levels.
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Although we’ve come a long way encouraging women into the industry, there’s further to go and now the extra push needed has a high profile, thanks to the new ‘Women in Bus and Coach’ initiative launched in Birmingham on 8 November (reported in CBW issue 1602) a few weeks ago.
In London at the Houses of Parliament on Monday 20 November, the initiative was given public backing at a reception given by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Road Passenger Transport – Recovery and Renewal, led by Shaun Bailey, MP and The Lord Snape. Paul Sainthouse, Managing Director of Dawsongroup Bus & Coach, organised the event and is the public enquiry point of contact for the committee.
The event was well attended. I had an interesting time meeting several of the women at the reception, all of whom are successful movers and shakers for the industry in their different ways.
But first, what are the problems which this initiative seeks to solve? At the womeninbusandcoach.org.uk website the initiative ‘aims to create a national network to encourage, represent, support and retain women in the bus and coach profession.’ Corporate membership costs £5,000 per annum and the initiative states that it will ‘challenge and eliminate barriers currently faced by women in the profession.’
From the people I talked to at the event and from the variety of speakers who gave their views, it seemed to me that a fundamental change is being sought. Allowing anyone to apply for a job is different to positively creating the working conditions where anyone would like to apply for a job. In the bus and coach industry there have probably been unspoken and unconscious assumptions that because men are OK with how things are at work, there’s no need to change, but women can join if they want.
Well, who wants to work in a place where, at the job level, your skills are not fully recognised and where, in the job work environment, you wouldn’t really want to use the toilets? Take drivers as an example. A few years ago only 1% of drivers were women. Now it’s about 10-11%. Does it matter? Don’t we just want the best drivers for the job? Of course we do, so it probably doesn’t matter too much what the precise ratio is. But the current ratio does indicate an extremely odd outcome for a job that can clearly be done by both men and women. Some changes must be needed.
The best drivers for the job will come from the biggest possible pool of drivers, and, at the moment, it seems that many operators still do not create the right conditions for women to be part of that pool. One successful outcome of the Women in Bus & Coach initiative would be to increase the pool of women who want to be drivers. It’s not as if we currently have too many drivers, so success for the initiative would be an immediate, straightforward win-win for the industry.
Remembering that our esteemed Acting Editor of CBW, Jonathan Welch, is an experienced former national Bus Driver of the Year award-winner, I wonder how long or how soon it will be before we have a female winner of the title.
There are additional benefits, beyond driving a bus or coach, that women can bring to the job. They often bring a sociable nature to their work which provides a positive customer experience and makes journeys more of a pleasure for customers, building brand loyalty. They also tend to approach or influence difficult and inflammatory situations in a way which reduces the problem. Both these qualities are valuable for such a customer-facing business.
Shocking experiences
To get to the hard point of personal experiences, I had a conversation with Anna Tkaczyk. She started out 15 years ago as a driver working for First Bus in London. Incredibly, but perhaps sadly too common at the time, from the outset, she was called the ‘f—ing Polish b—ch,’ not by her driver colleagues, but by some of her passengers. In addition, some of her male driver work mates made it clear that she probably didn’t have the driving skills needed for bus driving in London.
Imagine being a new British fully qualified male teacher in a Polish primary school and being told by local parents that you are a ‘f—ing British w—ker’ while your female colleagues make it clear that you lack teaching skills. You’re not exactly feeling welcome and encouraged to make progress.
Anna made progress. She got through that difficult start, and is clearly a very determined and skilled lady. She drove buses for five or six years. When Metroline bought the business, Anna’s qualities were recognised and she was promoted to Operations Manager in charge of over 220 employees, 9.5% female.
Recently, she applied for the post of Deputy Head of Transport Safety for Metroline and got the job, a senior role responsible for improving the safety of drivers, staff and passengers. She is now part of the team working on Greater London Mayor Khan’s ‘Vision Zero’ project to minimise numerous safety hazards, including accidents and assaults on the bus network.
Anna is an impressive example of the way women can achieve career progression in the industry, based on merit, despite her early experiences. I think I’d place bets that she’ll go further.
She was not alone that day.
I spoke to Julie Thomson (Legal and DSG and Compliance Director at ADL) and Laura Tofts (Head of Product Information and Training at ADL). Laura felt that the industry had come a long way in recent years as women have reached positions at the very top of its major companies. However, she was certain that the “game changer is flexible working.”
I heard this several times. Working in a demanding role, while bringing up a family at home, can be difficult. Flexibility from employers makes it possible for women and men, whether they are single or partner parents, to get that magic work/life balance which enables both roles to be successful. It’s something we take seriously, and put into practise, at CBW.
Laura talked to me about that perceived, underlying assumption that men are better at a job in this industry than women. Her advice for anyone facing that problem was summed up in three words: “competence overcomes bias.”
Caroline Wilson was there from Intuitive Talent Solutions. She is Head of Engagement for this transport focused recruitment agency and assured me that women always bring different, additional skills to the workplace at any level. This makes for better decision-making and better results all round.
Everything she said made sense and she’s obviously seen the results across an impressive client list. The agency is currently an all-female team, so, assuming that gender balance works both ways, perhaps some male presence there would make this energetic business even better too.
I met Claire Walters, Chief Executive of Bus Users UK since 2012. Something she said chimed with my own experience in business. When I was young, a family friend in a very senior position in a top UK public company, advised me to get work experience at all levels in whatever I did. “You will be a better leader when everyone in the business realises that you know what you’re talking about from direct experience,” he said. I followed his advice.
Claire emphasised that getting more women into the industry as drivers, who then know exactly what customers think, would make for better leaders, provided that the career pathways all the way to Board level are open.
Francesca Hand is a young operations manager with Flixbus, part of a team of four who manage and grow the Flixbus network in the UK. She has a background in engineering with Rolls Royce and has been in her new job for just over a year. She is loving the role and was another voice for improvements in working conditions to make the ideal (a common thread) work/life balance more achievable.
Her Senior Operations Manager colleague at Flixbus, Angelika Worek, has been in post just six months, having joined from Amazon where they know a thing or two about efficient operations. She was happy to report that her job was more than fulfilling her expectations. She’s proud of where she works.
There were several speeches given by a range of speakers from across the industry. Claire Miles, the new CEO of Stagecoach promised that Stagecoach under her leadership would do its bit to make sure women were welcome and encouraged in the company. Candice Mason from Masons Coaches told her own story of joining the family firm and being treated at first like a ‘lesser being’ by the men. She is now part of the management team.
From the coach manufacturing side of the industry, Julie Hartley said ‘hi Jonathan’ as I walked into the reception. She is now Sales Director at Irizar UK and has had several alpha males to cope with in her successful career. There is very little that Julie does not know about the coach business and coach operators in the UK.
Both these coaching ladies embody Laura’s mantra that competence overcomes bias.
After listening to a talk from experienced Traffic Commissioner Claire Bell, I had to leave for Paddington and the train home. By the time the train pulled in to Kemble station I was wondering how long it would be before the Women in Bus & Coach initiative would no longer be needed. With the experience and knowledge shown among those at the Houses of Parliament reception, it might not be long.
