WILTS & DORSET ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL REPORT 2005
Alex Carter OUR RESPONSIBILITY A message from the Managing Director Welcome to this, our first corporate responsibility report. It would be hard to imagine the streets of Bournemouth, Poole and Salisbury without seeing the distinctive livery of a Wilts & Dorset bus. Over the many years of running bus services, we have learned a lot about what it means to be a responsible company. Issues such as convenience, reliability, safety, local air quality and noise are very important to this community.we know this, because as part of Go-Ahead we took part in a programme of discussions last year to find out our stakeholders priorities when judging us as a responsible business. More and more people are interested in understanding how the companies around them are contributing to the local community and the environment we share.this report describes how we are doing and gives some practical examples. For example, we are investing in upgrading our fleet.the new low floor buses are easier for people with pushchairs, prams, wheelchairs or mobility issues to access as well as being less polluting for the environment.we are also putting our old buses to good use. Four of them are being shipped to Aceh in Indonesia and Galle in Sri Lanka to provide transport for two of the regions hardest hit by the tsunami.we believe this is responsibility in action. We are committed to improving the way we run our business and hope that you find this report useful and informative. Let us know if you have any comments, views or ideas on how we might improve, or on further issues that we should address in this report. Alex Carter Managing Director Contents 1 About Wilts & Dorset About The Go-Ahead Group plc About this report 2 The Marketplace 4 The Workplace 6 The Environment 8 The Community IBC Auditing & verifying this report
Wilts & Dorset Environmental & Social Report 2005 1 Who we are The Wilts & Dorset Bus Company Limited or Wilts and Dorset for short, serves Dorset, Wiltshire and South West Hampshire, and is one of the leading bus operators in the south of England. Our fleet of nearly 400 buses run local services in and around Bournemouth, Poole and Salisbury and throughout the surrounding countryside. We have around 800 employees who served over 17 million passengers last year. We also run coach services under the Damory, Tourist, Bells, Levers and Kingston Coaches brands. About The Go-Ahead Group plc Since August 2003, Wilts & Dorset has been part of The Go-Ahead Group plc. Go-Ahead is a major provider of transport services across the UK employing over 20,000 people and carrying 700 million passengers. Its operations span bus, rail, parking and aviation support services. Go-Ahead offers its operating companies freedom to develop and run their businesses: local people make local decisions on running local services. Go-Ahead also provides a common framework for managing companies impact on society and the environment.this report describes our performance against that framework. POOLE SALISBURY BOURNEMOUTH Our company structure ensures that local people make local decisions about local services About this report This report describes our performance in meeting our responsibilities as a business in the 12 months to 2nd July 2005. It is divided into four main sections, which describe the ways in which our business impacts on the world around us, and our responsibilities for managing these impacts: Marketplace how we run our services Workplace the issues that affect the people who work for us Environment our impact on the environment and how we manage and reduce it Community our role in the communities where we operate To keep this report short, we have placed our full report containing a lot more information on the web www.go-ahead.com/corporateresponsibility
2 Wilts & Dorset Environmental & Social Report 2005 THE MARKETPLACE Our responsibilities in the marketplace We want people to travel on our buses. We see increasing the use of public transport as being our most important responsibility as a business and our most significant impact on local communities. Carrying more passengers is also critical to our ongoing success. Last year, we asked our stakeholders (including employees, passengers, representative bodies and many others) for their views.they confirmed that increasing travel by bus should be our main responsibility, and that the most important factors in achieving this are: Reliability, convenience and punctuality Accessibility for all Safety and security Affordability We are therefore seeking to measure our performance against these key marketplace issues. It is not always possible to get things right. We welcome complaints and additional feedback from passengers and use this to improve our services. Our responsibility: ensuring accessibility for all, particularly people with disabilities The introduction of low floor buses fitted with ramps is a major step forward to improving access for all. We have met our target to increase the proportion of low floor buses within our fleet to 49% and have made a commitment that all new buses entering our fleet will be low floor. Services 121 and 123 between Lymington and Bournemouth are now completely low floor and wheelchair accessible. We are also working with Local Authorities to improve access at bus stops and training our people to help those in need of assistance. Our responsibility: to provide reliable, convenient and punctual services Consultation on service and route improvements demonstrated strong demand for an improved service between Poole and Bournemouth. As a result, we introduced the more services offering greater frequency and a better service between Poole,Westbourne, Bournemouth, Boscombe, Christchurch and Burton in December 2004.The routes run new, improved, larger buses with more seats, easier access for all, air conditioning and heating systems; and more buses per route. Bus stops feature real time displays.the more services have attracted 55% more passengers than the route 102-105 they replaced. We now plan to expand the network and increase further the number of services. We are investing 4m and purchasing an additional 30 new buses to deliver this expansion. Low-floor buses, such as those on our more services, have played a key role in ensuring accessibility for all
Our responsibility: ensuring the safety and security of passengers, employees and the general public We achieved our target that one-third of our buses would be equipped with CCTV systems by June 2005. Our CCTV systems can be viewed by passengers, the driver and at our central monitoring site and have a range of positive impacts for passengers and drivers; they have a positive impact on deterring crime, increasing personal safety and passenger confidence, detecting crime and providing evidence where necessary. Our responsibility: affordability to ensure as many as possible can use our services Our new Bus ID and Bus ID+ schemes offer half price travel for young people. Bus ID is available free for young people between the ages of 5 and 16; Bus ID+ costs 20 for those between 16 and 18 years old.these reduced fares are our investment in building our market amongst the younger generation; we also run schemes for older people and those looking for work. Size of bus fleet The Marketplace Passenger journeys 16.93m Vehicle kms travelled 22.51m % of low floor buses Go-Ahead target 36 65 49 381 365 3 CCTV cameras increase safety, security and passenger confidence Our responsibility: affordability to ensure as many as possible can use our services Our new Bus ID and Bus ID+ schemes offer half price travel for young people. Bus ID is available free for young people between the ages of 5 and 16; Bus ID+ costs 20 for those between 16 and 18 years old.these reduced fares are our investment in building our market amongst the younger generation; we also run schemes for older people and those looking for work. Vehicle accidents per million vehicle km travelled Average age of fleet: Government-Industry target vs Wilts & Dorset (years) 9.38 Average fleet age 11.4 16.0 Government-Industry target (max) 9.07 8 VOSA PSV vehicle test pass rate Wilts & Dorset 98.00% National average 84.13% Our discount schemes encourage younger passengers to travel by bus Scheduled km operated buses 99.2% Industry target 99.5%
4 Wilts & Dorset Environmental & Social Report 2005 THE WORKPLACE Our responsibilities in the workplace Our business success and ability to run our services depends on the 785 people we employ, over three-quarters of whom have direct contact with the passengers we serve. Our responsibility is to provide a positive work environment conducive to the recruitment and retention of our people. This means treating people well regardless of gender, race, age, and where practical, disability, and investing in a range of employee benefits that help us recruit, retain and motivate our employees. Our responsibility: workplace learning We worked with our union, the RMT, to see how Wilts & Dorset can support workplace learning across our 20 sites. We donated one of our buses for conversion to a learning centre, with the RMT securing funding for refitting and laptop computers.the Learning Bus was launched in April 2004 and the open day launch visits to Poole and Salisbury attracted 120 people.the Union Learning Representatives are now busy setting up courses and workshops; employee feedback shows that computing, languages and sign language are the most popular. We provide opportunities for our people to develop their professional and personal skills The Learning Bus: a big success on launch.
The Workplace 5 Number of employees 785 () Number of employees 702 () Diversity by gender (Male) 618 697 In-house driver training allows our staff to earn instructor qualifications Our responsibility: training & development We provide opportunities for our people to develop their professional and personal skills, offering driver training for new recruits and refresher training for experienced staff. We have prioritised customer care training for drivers on the more and UNILINX networks. After positive feedback, we will extend the courses to other staff next year. Diversity by gender (Female) 84 88 Diversity by age 16-19: 1.3% 20-29: 8.8% 30-39: 15.5% 40-49: 28.9% 50.59: 35.2% 60-64: 9.3% 65+: 1.0% Physical assaults on staff per million passenger journeys 0.41 0.96 Employee turnover rate (%) 22.8 24.9
6 Wilts & Dorset Environmental & Social Report 2005 THE ENVIRONMENT Our responsibilities to the environment Bus companies have a visible impact on the environment. Our buses are a source of greenhouse gases and local air pollutants and our depots and garages use energy for maintenance, heating and cooling. Our main responsibility is to minimise the environmental impact of our buses, particularly relating to emissions and noise. We do this through good maintenance, investment in our fleet and the introduction of technology. Our responsibility: to benchmark our performance The Go-Ahead Group came top of the public transport companies that participated in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index 2004.The index criteria were made more challenging in 2004. We improved our score to 81%. In the Environment Index, we scored 85%. Our 4m investment in the new more services has delivered 30 new buses with the latest, low-emission Euro III engines
The Environment 7 Our responsibility: to reduce road crowding People are travelling more and more, mostly by car: on the roads of Poole, Bournemouth and Salisbury, congestion is a problem, creating frustration and environmental damage. Public transport is part of the solution. More passengers can travel in a bus than a car, bringing benefits for reduced environmental impact and congestion. We work closely with all the local authorities in the area to promote and improve the service we offer. VOSA emissions pass rate Wilts & Dorset 100% National average 99.14% % of fleet with Euro II engines or above % of fleet with CRT 5 43 21 56 Air pollution NOx (g) per passenger journey 11.27 13.24 We work closely with all the local authorities in the area to promote and improve the service we offer. Our responsibility: to reduce emissions New vehicles have lower emission specifications than older vehicles. Under Go-Ahead ownership we are investing in new vehicles to add to our fleet and to replace the oldest examples. Over the last 12 months, the average age of our fleet has fallen from 9.38 years to 9.07 years, slightly over the Government industry target of 8 years.the investment will continue as we seek to get towards the Go-Ahead average of 5 years. Air pollution PM (g) per passenger journey 0.39 0.54 Air pollution CO 2 (kg) per passenger journey 1.06 1.23 Air pollution CO (g) per passenger journey Air pollution HC (g) per passenger journey 1.17 1.51 2.18 2.57
8 Wilts & Dorset Environmental & Social Report 2005 THE COMMUNITY Our responsibilities to the community Bus companies are an integral part of the community as we provide essential services for the people that live, work and visit the region. Running our services is the main way that we contribute towards improving the commercial and social wellbeing of the region. Successful communities are in all our interests, and we also look to contribute to the health of the local community through fundraising for charity and offering free travel as prizes benefiting good causes. In addition, the Group provides cash donations on behalf of all the operating companies. Buses to Indonesia and Sri Lanka Wilts & Dorset wanted to make a practical contribution to improving the situation following the devastating Indian Ocean Tsunami. A major issue was that the schools infrastructure was severely damaged. We knew from our experience with our employeefocused Learning Bus that a coach can double up as a classroom. Our major investment in new buses also meant that we had surplus buses for disposal: four of our coaches were part of a fleet of 100 shipped out to Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Alex Carter talks to pupils at St Mary s Our responsibility: building community engagement April 2005 saw Wilts & Dorset Managing Director, Alex Carter back in the classroom. Alex was invited by the Head Teacher of St Mary s CE Middle School in Puddlestown to come and talk about the inside story behind the company that runs the school bus service. Alex invited the pupils to give their ideas on services they would like to see. Wilts & Dorset and Damory hope this will be the start of a close relationship with the school. Community spend 29,475: 9% of total Group spend ( 327,470) At a local operating company level community investment is driven through support in kind activities, while the PLC handles direct financial donations. The figures above include an element of both these community investment streams.
SUMMARY INDEPENDENT VERIFICATION AND AUDIT STATEMENT The SMART Company was commissioned by the Go-Ahead Group plc to undertake an independent review of their Environmental and Social Report for the period July 2004 to June 2005.An Associate Director, who did not participate in the data gathering and report writing process, conducted the verification. The verification was undertaken using the principles of the assurance standard AA1000: materiality completeness and responsiveness.this is the fourth consecutive year that SMART has provided assurance for Go Ahead and we have undertaken a rolling programme of audits, ensuring all operating companies have been audited at least once during this period. In 2005 a sample of three operating companies was visited as part of the verification process. Sample checks of the data sources were undertaken and interviews were conducted with members of the management team who had been responsible for data collection.we are therefore 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 www.go-ahead.com/corporateresponsibility. Helen Rushton, Associate Director, The SMART Company, September 2005 Go-Ahead Wilts & Dorset is part of The Go-Ahead Group plc. Members of the group operate bus services in the south of England, North East England and London commuter train networks, aviation ground handling and parking services. Other companies within the group are: aviance Brighton & Hove Bus Company Go North East London Central & London General Meteor Metrobus Oxford Bus Company Southern Railway Thameslink All photography supplied courtsey of The Image Team. Portrait shot of Mr Carter by Gareth Jones
More information on how Wilts & Dorset manages its responsibilities can be found at www.go-ahead.com/corporateresponsibility 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 write to: Alex Carter Managing Director Wilts & Dorset Bus Company Ltd Towngate House 2/8 Parkstone Road Poole Dorset BH15 2PR Tel: 01202 680 888 Email: comments@wdbus.co.uk 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 88% of dry waste and 95% of cleaning solvents for future use. Beacon Press uses 100% renewable energy, is a Carbon Neutral company, has ISO14001 & EMAS accreditation and holds the Queen's Award for Sustainable Development. Printed on Revive Matt which is made from 75% post consumer waste and 25% mill broke. In order to minimise the environmental impacts of our reports, Go Ahead is working with The CarbonNeutral Company to assess and 'offset' the greenhouse gas emissions created by the production and distribution of our annual and corporate responsibility reports. 16.64 tonnes of CO 2 will be balanced through native forestry Donkleywood, a UK Forestry project in Northumberland, making both these reports CarbonNeutral. For more information about other projects from The CarbonNeutral Company go to www.carbonneutral.com or call 08701 99 99 88.