Why building and nurturing relationships is a continuous journey

The strength of its relationships with staff, customers, businesses and local authorities, helped bus operator trentbarton through the tough times presented by Covid-19 pandemic. Here, in his own words, Tom Morgan, managing director for Wellglade’s bus operators, which includes trentbarton, explains why we should all now consider establishing a relationship with sustainable public transport.

Relationships matter, in business as in life. We neglect our relationships at our peril, both personal and professional.

Work put into our business relationships – internally with our colleagues and externally with our customers and the wider world – is essential for our mutual success.

For many years now trentbarton has striven to be the ‘really good bus company’, based on healthy relationships within our teams and with our public.

We pioneered having route-based driving teams that got to know their customers and vice-versa.

That’s partly why we have had many years of regional and national success in the independently judged Transport Focus satisfaction surveys.

But like any relationship, you have to keep working on it and continue letting others know how important they are to you.

It’s at times of stress and strain that those relationships are tested and either pull you through or leave you adrift.

The Covid-19 pandemic and its lockdowns upended so much of how we live – and travel – that it has been a long and winding road to a new normality.

I don’t think we are there yet, but what has kept us on the journey is the strength of our relationships.

It is well known that the whole bus industry – like many sectors – faced a skills shortage in Covid’s aftermath.

We have put a huge amount of time, money and effort into rebuilding our driving team.

That is now bearing fruit, with lots of new graduates of our driving school passing their tests, getting their licences and hitting the road.

Each begins their trentbarton bus driving journey with a feeling of being part of our family, of having supportive and encouraging relationships with their trainers, their mentors, their team leaders, their colleagues and the board room.

With that arm around their shoulder, they are more likely to enjoy their work, thrive at what they do and stay with us to develop their career.

Empowering every team and every manager is one of my key missions in my new role.

I want every manager to treat her or his team as their own small business.

That power of self-determination comes with responsibility, for sure.

Their team has to manage its costs, provide what it is there to do and to seek to make positive changes to improve their service and how they deliver it for our customers.

But it also comes with trust and belief; our trust and our belief in them that they can achieve.

Each manager and each member of their teams see every day many examples of opportunities seized by people who were in their roles and are now service delivery managers, heads of departments, depot managers and in senior executive positions.

They are there because of the relationships they were invited to forge with colleagues, customers and the communities in which we operate.

We are all local people ourselves, working within a local company that provides a service to our local communities.

But it’s a two-way street. We need the support of our communities to be able to provide a sustainable service now and into the future.

That means individual people and families getting back on the buses, leaving the car at home now and again and travelling with us.

Our aim is to get car drivers and their passengers to try the bus. If we can convert one out of every 25 car journeys into a bus ride it would mean a billion fewer car journeys and save two million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year contributing to the climate emergency.

And to get those people onto a bus we need the help of our collective community in the form of our local councils.

They have the power to ease congestion through initiatives – large and small – to prioritise public transport.

Together we need to loosen the choking hold congestion has on our roads and the knock-on impacts on our towns and cities and their economies, productivity, social inclusion and air quality.

Everyone can benefit, including businesses based in our cities, towns and other centres.

We can promote vibrant, attractive destinations to our customers. Places where businesses such as retailers, hospitality and experience venues understand the added-value bus borne consumers can bring to footfall and revenue.

The average bus user dwells for longer in such centres, spends more per trip, becomes destination loyal and travels more regularly.

If cities, towns and other destinations prioritise bus customers by making their journeys and arrival as attractive and easy as possible, everyone will enjoy the benefits that brings.

At trentbarton and Wellglade we are working hard on the relationships with our local authorities and our local and national democratic representatives.

If they are really good allies for the really good bus company, we can together achieve really good outcomes for the public.

And that means you and me. It means us all.