WILTS & DORSET ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL REPORT 2007

Transcription

1 WILTS & DORSET ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL REPORT 2007

2 OUR RESPONSIBILITY A message from the Managing Director Our primary responsibility to the communities we serve is to be steadfast in our focus to deliver the best possible service to our passengers, as this is the way to attract people out of their cars and onto the buses. Efficient public transport helps reduce congestion as well as being good for the environment a bus has much lower levels of emissions per passenger compared to a car. We are immensely proud of what we have achieved in growing our business so far.we have invested more than 11 million bringing in new buses and introduced new branded services, such as the very popular high frequency more routes, the Wimborne Flyer and the new Pulseline service in Salisbury. This investment is delivering results, with passenger numbers increasing by a remarkable 9.25% in 2006.This is a real success story as the number of passengers travelling by bus is typically falling outside London, and it represents a turnaround for the Wilts & Dorset area too. Earlier this year, we wrote to the 180,000 homes in the area who are not bus users to alert them to the new standards of comfort and convenience we offer on our buses and persuade them to hop on board. A major change for us has been a re-organisation of the timetable in the Poole area.this was needed to reflect changes in patterns of employment, shopping and new housing developments.we listened to as many people as possible, but recognise that not everyone welcomed the changes we made. However, our responsibility is to increase overall passenger numbers and we are in no doubt that the timetable changes have contributed to our success in this area. We are also changing in other ways. For example, in the Poole area we now offer an innovative text messaging service providing information on the times of the next three buses due at each bus stop direct to passengers mobile phones.this service is among the first in the country, so it s not just new for us but also our passengers too. We are proud of the role we play in local communities and look for innovative ways to promote local good causes.this year, we linked up with local charity, Julia s House, the Dorset Children s Hospice, to help raise awareness of the charity and its work. Three designs from children attending the Hospice were selected by bus drivers to become the new livery for one of our buses, and this bus now provides a distinctive reminder of the charity as it travels around Dorset. We have achieved a lot in the last year, but there is always room for improvement. Being open to change and listening to passengers has an important role to play in our success. If this report helps stimulate views, comments and ideas, we would be delighted to hear from you. Alex Carter Managing Director Contents 2 The Marketplace 4 The Workplace 6 The Environment 8 The Community IBC Independent Assurance Statement Cover photo: Corfe Castle, one of the landmark sites on our network.

3 Wilts & Dorset Environmental & Social Report WHO WE ARE THE WILTS & DORSET BUS COMPANY RUNS BUS SERVICES IN DORSET,WILTSHIRE AND SOUTH WEST HAMPSHIRE, AND IS ONE OF THE LEADING OPERATORS ON THE SOUTH COAST. About Wilts & Dorset Our fleet of 380 buses provide local services around Bournemouth, Poole, Salisbury and the surrounding countryside. We also run coach services under the Damory,Tourist, Bells, Levers and Kingston Coaches brands. About The Go-Ahead Group plc We are part of The Go-Ahead Group plc. Go-Ahead is a major provider of transport services across the UK employing over 25,000 people and carrying over 875 million passengers. Its operations span bus, rail, parking and aviation support services. The Go-Ahead Group believes that local people make the best decisions about local services.this ethos runs throughout the Group. Go-Ahead has also developed a common framework for managing companies impact on local communities and the environment, and we measure our performance against this framework. About this report This report covers Wilts & Dorset s performance for the 12 months to 30 June It is divided into four main sections as shown below, which describe the POOLE SALISBURY We provide local bus services in Dorset,Wiltshire and south west Hampshire. BOURNEMOUTH impacts of our activities in different areas, and our efforts to manage these responsibly As part of our annual business planning, we have set targets and goals to improve our social and environmental performance for 2007/08. To keep this report short, we have placed a lot more information on the web.you can find this at MARKETPLACE How we run our services WORKPLACE Issues that affect the people who work for us ENVIRONMENT How we manage and reduce our impact on the environment COMMUNITY Making the communities where we operate better places to live and work

4 2 Wilts & Dorset Environmental & Social Report 2007 THE MARKETPLACE OUR RESPONSIBILITIES WE BELIEVE THAT OUR MAIN SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY IS TO MAXIMISE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE THAT USE OUR BUSES. Buses help tackle social exclusion, particularly for households without cars. Buses are also better for the environment as they are more efficient than the private car.yet, as income rises, so too does private car ownership, causing potential decline in bus travel patronage. Despite this, Wilts & Dorset gained an extra four million passengers last year. When we asked our passengers, employees and other stakeholders what they thought, they confirmed our view that our most important responsibility is to increase bus usage.they indicated that the most important factors influencing people to choose our services are: Reliability, convenience and punctuality Accessibility for all Safety and security Affordability. Our responsibility is, therefore, to provide services that meet each of these criteria. Our responsibility: providing reliable, convenient and punctual services Our success in carrying more passengers is down to investment in new services and changes we have made to our network. The hugely popular more services in Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch are now two years old and in that time have carried over eight million people. This represents a sustained increase of more than 30% on the routes the services replaced. Our formula of investing in larger buses, more seats, easier access, air conditioning, heating, and increased frequency on key routes clearly appears to be a winning one. Last year we carried out a major review of our entire route network. Centres of employment have shifted and new housing, shopping and other exciting destination centres have developed, which we needed to respond to.the increase in passenger numbers shows that most of the changes we made have been a success, although the withdrawal of some services and reduction in frequency on some routes has disappointed some passengers. A new development this year is the introduction of a mobile phone alert service in Poole. Each bus stop has a unique code and by texting this code to 84268, passengers can find the times of the next three buses within seconds. Our responsibility: accessibility for all, particularly people with disabilities Traditionally bus design was geared towards the able bodied. Now, low-floor buses fitted with powered ramps are a major step forward in improving access for all. This is an area that we committed to improve last year, and we are pleased to report we have delivered on this. Now over half of our bus fleet is low-floor and if we exclude coaches from the figures we are ahead of the Go-Ahead target of 65%.We are committed to meeting the Go-Ahead target across our fleet and, are starting to guarantee low-floor services on other parts of the network, such as the more services. We continue to work in partnership with organisations that assist people with learning difficulties. We recognise that having the confidence to use public transport is an important step towards independence, so we supply buses and drivers to give those with special needs an opportunity to explore our buses and raise any concerns they may have.

5 Wilts & Dorset The Marketplace m Passenger Journeys 19.83m Vehicle kms travelled Low-floor buses (%) Our new mobile phone alert service gives customers real-time bus information. Our responsibility: safety and security of passengers, employees and the general public The safety and security of our passengers, employees and the general public is our paramount concern. We have a comprehensive health and safety programme that includes training, risk assessments and access to specialist advice and training. We also continue our commitment to CCTV equipment on our buses, as these systems help deter and detect crime Size of bus fleet Our responsibility: affordability to ensure as many as possible can use our services We continue to offer our popular Bus ID and Bus ID+ schemes providing half-price travel for under 18 year olds. We also run free travel schemes for older people and those with disabilities. As part of our commitment to offer fares that are easy to understand, we have removed most restrictions on return and season tickets.these can now be used at any time and shared amongst families and friends. We have also linked with PayPoint to offer discounted tickets through their agencies in the area. Average age of fleet Government Industry Target (max) Wilts & Dorset VOSA PSV vehicle test pass rate 96.4% Wilts & Dorset 85.7% National average pass rate The number of customers who travel on our more services has increased by over 30% in the last two years. Scheduled km operated buses 99.4% Wilts & Dorset 99.5% Industry target

6 4 Wilts & Dorset Environmental & Social Report 2007 THE WORKPLACE OUR RESPONSIBILITIES OUR BUSINESS SUCCESS AND ABILITY TO RUN OUR SERVICES DEPEND ON EVERYONE OF THE 990 PEOPLE WE EMPLOY. Three-quarters of our employees are drivers and they help build our reputation every day in dealing directly with passengers using our services. Our aim is simple: to provide a work environment that encourages our people to stay with us and attracts new recruits to join us. We offer secure employment, market leading rates of pay and a wide package of employee benefits including a company pension. Our responsibility: maintaining recruitment levels Our ability to run our services is dependent on having drivers available to drive our buses. Bus driving is a challenging occupation, so we continue to work on retaining and recruiting staff. Initiatives that we have developed include improved staff communication, a re-launched staff magazine, increased flexibility for local managers to respond to issues as they arise, and a staff suggestion scheme. We have also set up an employee board to provide a forum for discussing any issues and concerns. We recognise the vital role our employees have in building and sustaining our reputation with our customers. We offer secure employment, market leading rates of pay and a wide package of employee benefits, including a company pension.

7 Wilts & Dorset The Workplace 5 Number of employees Employee turnover rate (%) Our responsibility: workplace learning and developing skills We invested over 200,000 in training to give our employees opportunities to improve and develop their professional skills. We offer driver training for those that are new to the company and driver refreshers for experienced staff. Customer service training is also provided. Male Diversity by gender We continue to support the Learning Bus, which is run in partnership with Rail Union Learning. Our involvement included the donation of a bus, which RUL has transformed into a highly successful learning centre offering a range of personal development courses such as computing, languages and sign languages. Female Diversity by age 16-19: 1.7% 20-29: 10.3% 30-39: 14.6% 40-49: 26.3% 50-59: 30.4% 60-64: 12.8% 65+: 3.9% Physical assaults on staff per million journeys We continue to invest in helping our employees to develop their professional skills

8 6 Wilts & Dorset Environmental & Social Report 2007 THE ENVIRONMENT OUR RESPONSIBILITIES ALL COMPANIES HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO WORK TO ALLEVIATE CLIMATE CHANGE, BUT THIS RESPONSIBILITY IS CENTRAL TO PUBLIC TRANSPORT COMPANIES. Wilts & Dorset continues to improve its performance. Since 2003, we have invested over 11 million in more than 80 new buses powered by the latest fuel-efficient engines. Persuading more people to choose bus over the private car reduces carbon emissions as well as local pollution and congestion. Adding more than four million extra passengers was a good performance this year, however, we believe that we can go further. Go-Ahead sets industry leading environmental standards that it expects all its operating companies to achieve.this is why five of the ten most environmentally friendly bus companies in Britain outside London are Go-Ahead companies. Our responsibility: local air quality An independent study carried out by The TAS Partnership has again confirmed that Go-Ahead leads the field in having the most environmentally friendly bus fleets in Britain.The study compared the fleet composition of more than 100 of the largest bus companies outside London and modelled their vehicle emissions. Wilts & Dorset continues to improve its performance. Since 2003, we have invested over 11 million in more than 80 new buses powered by the latest fuel-efficient engines.these vehicles have replaced some of the oldest buses in our fleet. Bob Crutchfield standing in front of our new greener bus wash at our Salisbury depot. We already use Ultra Low Sulphur (ULS) Diesel as our fuel of choice. ULS Diesel is a high specification diesel that is considered to be more environmentally friendly than the standard European grade. However, following extensive tests we have now adopted a biofuel mix of 95% ULS Diesel and 5% oil derived from plant material. We also operate a rigorous maintenance schedule, which includes a regular emissions test every five weeks. Our systems are independently assessed by VOSA (Vehicle & Operator Services Agency), which carries out annual and random emissions tests.

9 Wilts & Dorset The Environment 7 VOSA emissions pass rate 100% Wilts & Dorset % of fleet with Euro II engines or above Our responsibility: saving water Water is increasingly a precious resource. It s also necessary to clean our buses, so we have taken steps to reduce our consumption by investing 70,000 in a new, greener bus wash at our Salisbury depot. The 125 buses based in Salisbury will use the new, fully automated bus wash, which uses significantly less water and chemicals than the 13-year-old system we previously had in place. Our responsibility: measuring our performance For the third year, the Go-Ahead Group came top of the public transport companies that participated in the Business in the Community (BITC) Corporate Responsibility Index. We scored 91% (89% in 2005), a significant improvement, and were ranked in the Gold Band by BITC. In the Environment Index we did even better, improving our score to 93.11% (from 91.62% in 2005) which included maximum marks for the Group s performance on emissions management. * 21 % of fleet with CRT *% of fleet carrying CRT was inaccurate for. 24 Air pollution: NOx (g) per passenger journey Air pollution: PM (g) per passenger journey Air pollution: CO 2 (kg) per passenger journey Air pollution: CO (g) per passenger journey Air pollution: HC (g) per passenger journey

10 8 Wilts & Dorset Environmental & Social Report 2007 THE COMMUNITY OUR RESPONSIBILITIES WE PROVIDE ESSENTIAL SERVICES FOR THOSE LIVING IN,WORKING IN OR VISITING THE COMMUNITIES THAT WE SERVE. The problems of social exclusion are very real and often exacerbated by poor transport. A growing trend is for employment opportunities to be fragmented, and shopping and leisure to be located outside the core of our towns and cities.this poses difficulties for those who don t have a car. Running these services is, therefore, the most important way that we contribute to community wellbeing. Vibrant and successful communities are in everybody s interest. We contribute through cash and in-kind donations and by encouraging employee involvement. The Go-Ahead Group also provides cash donations on behalf of its operating companies. Our responsibility: partnering with local good causes We have linked up with Julia s House, the Dorset children s hospice. Julia s House was opened in 2006 and is named in commemoration of devoted and inspirational children s nurse Julia Perks, whose tragic early death in 1997 was a huge loss to local healthcare. Julia s House is the realisation of her ambition to improve care for young people with life-limiting conditions. Community spend 16, % of total Group spend ( 329,987) At a local operating company level community investment is driven through support in kind activities, while the Group Head Office handles direct financial donations.the figures above include an element of both these community investment streams. This year, we ran a special initiative offering the charity the opportunity to design its own bus livery. Children attending the Hospice put forward their ideas and the best three were chosen by a committee of drivers. The winning design on one of our buses provides an eye-catching mobile advertisement for the charity. Our bus in the livery designed by one of the children at Julia s House Hospice.

11 SUMMARY INDEPENDENT ASSURANCE STATEMENT The SMART Company was commissioned by The Go-Ahead Group plc to provide independent assurance of the environment and social information within the Environmental and Social Reports for the period July 2006 to June The assuror conducting the verification did not participate in any part of the data gathering and report writing process.this statement represents an independent opinion.the verification was undertaken with reference to the underlying principles of the assurance standard AA1000, namely materiality, completeness and responsiveness. This is the sixth consecutive year that The SMART Company has provided assurance for Go-Ahead as part of a rolling programme of audits, ensuring all operating companies are audited at least once every three years. In 2007, the assurance process included five sample operating companies (incorporating site visits), comprising Meteor, Solent Blue Line, Southern Vectis, Go West Midlands and Southeastern. Interviews were conducted with managers responsible for the internal reporting and validation of data and sample checks of consolidated data were undertaken. On the basis of the assurance method and scope of the work undertaken we are satisfied that this report is a reliable and accurate reflection of the performance of the company. A full verification report, containing a more detailed analysis together with recommendations for developing the processes for measuring, managing and reporting Go-Ahead plc s environmental and social impacts, can be found at The SMART Company, August 2007 Go-Ahead Wilts & Dorset is part of The Go-Ahead Group plc. Members of the group operate bus services (in the south of England, London, the West Midlands and the north east of England), commuter train networks, aviation ground handling and parking services. Other companies within the group are: aviance UK Brighton & Hove Bus Company Go North East Go West Midlands London Central, London General and Docklands Minibuses Meteor Metrobus Oxford Bus Company Solent Blue Line Southeastern Southern Southern Vectis

12 More information on how Wilts & Dorset Bus Company manages its responsibilities can be found at If you have any comments, views or ideas on how we might improve, or have any thoughts on other issues that we should address in this report, please use the enclosed form or write to: Alex Carter Managing Director Wilts & Dorset Bus Company Towngate House Poole Dorset BH15 2PR Telephone: This report was put together by The Go-Ahead Group with help from The SMART Company, and designed and produced by Rare Corporate Design, London. Printed by Beacon Press using their environmental print technology which minimises any negative environmental impacts resulting from the printing of this document. includes the use of vegetable based inks, recycling of 90% of dry waste and 95% of cleaning solvents for future use. Beacon Press holds the Queen s Award for Sustainable Development together with ISO14001 and EMAS accreditations. Beacon is a CarbonNeutral company and uses 100% renewable energy, saving 0.38 tonnes of CO 2 on the production of Go-Ahead s 2007 corporate responsibility reports. Printed on Revive 75 Matt which contains 75% recovered fibres, is FSC certified and is CarbonNeutral.