1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136 
TRAINING ON THE BUSES
Page 48
Page 49
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Above: "frank( l'SV driving instructors undergo a nine-day course. Below: Skillplace attracts trainees from all over the UK: this group are on a CPC course. • A former busman has set up a course designed to give would-be PSV operators a greater knowledge of the industry they will work in, rather than merely getting them through their CPC exams.
Brian Evans, of Skillplace, in Port Talbot, invites guests from the industry and experts from specialist fields such as insurance and company law to broaden the scope of his eight-day course.
"We don't just run a crammer for the exam," he says. "Instead of an academic lecture we bring in people who are working in the industry and have a depth of experience. They are not afraid to discuss particular problems with the trainees."
As an ex-bus conductor, Evans is able to use his 23 years' experience in the industry to build a course which prepares trainees for the commercial realities of today's PSV market. His contacts include course speakers with hands-on knowledge of their subjects.
For example, South Wales' supervising traffic examiner Dennis Donovan spends a day talking about drivers' hours and tachographs. "Who better to talk to people about the subject than someone who is working at the sharp end?" asks Evans. "Again, for the section on the role of the Traffic Commissioner we bring in Reg Dodd, clerk to the South Wales Licensing Authority."
Evans entered the industry in 1967 as a conductor with South Wales Transport. By 1977 he had risen to company training officer when he left to join NBC at its headquarters in London as assistant to the group training officer: "The bus and coach industry is a very small village and many of the contacts I made during this period are still within the industry," he says. "When I go to conferences it is often like a reunion."
After eight years with NBC Evans had taken over as training development officer. But with the company about to be broken up by the Government he decided to get out "before the bitter end".
One of his contacts, Douglas Ross, was running a secretarial service in Bristol. Ross's clients included Badger Line and Bristol City bus companies, and Ross felt there was a need for a commercial training service within the PSV industry. He asked Evans to do some market research and set up a project. The Bristol operation only lasted a year, but it gave Evans the confidence to go it alone: "The train
ing was mostly in customer relations; there was a lot of interest in this as it was during the run-up to deregulation," he recalls. "I built up a client list which has stood me in good stead ever since. It was an uncertain time, but I sensed there was quite a buzz in the industry."
After a period working in video training in the Bristol area, Evans was able to return to his native South Wales to set up his own training company in association with South Wales Transport which provides Skillplace with premises and vehicles through a leasing contract.
However Evans stresses his independence, both from SWT and its parent company Badger Line. "If we were part of a major operation we would not get the trust of the smaller operators who come to us." he says. "Dealing with training problems within companies means they have to tell us a lot about their business which they would not want their competitors to know."
In just over two years Skillforce has built up a client base of 45 companies from all over the UK. Most of the business is generated through advertising, but a lot comes through referrals and word of mouth. Evans' wife Carol looks after the administration. The teaching stall, apart from Evans, comprises three full-time and one part-time instructor, all qualified to BC'!' assessment standard.
Apart from four PSV/CPC courses a year the company offers PSV driver training, customer relations training and a training audit and consultancy service, which includes an on-the-spot evaluation of a company's training capability and infrastructure. After this a confidential report is produced, recommending ways of steering the company's training effort towards its management aims with programmes which can be run by in-house training departments. Tutoring of in-house trainers is also offered.
One aspect of training the trainers is the PSV driving instructor course offered by the company. It is restricted to two trainee instructors per course: "We keep it to two per course because then there is nowhere to hide," says Evans. During the intensive nine-day course the trainee instructors are sent out on the road with learner drivers, but under strict supervision.
"If they know it is not role-playing but instructing for real then that really gets the adrenalin pumping," says Evans.
Customer relations training is aimed at all levels of staff, and is seen by Evans as vital in the deregulated industry. "With the monopolies prior to deregulation it was mainly a case of 'get them through the test and teach them to dish out change'," he says. "But now all that has changed and the customers demand more respect. "People want a user-friendly service. If the customer does not like the service then someone will come in to provide what is wanted. We as a country are becoming more aware of our rights as customers and more prepared to complain."
In the bus industry a company is judged by the behaviour of its staff; they are the people who meet the customer face to face and can make or break a competitive service. The PSV industry tends to cater for the young and the old — both sectors of the public which require extra care — and Evans finds that companies from both ends of the spectrum are coming to him for help in this area.
"Companies coming to me for customerrelations training range from ex-NBC companies and the municipal sector right down to the guy who runs his buses from an extension built on the back of his house," says Evans.
The benefits of customer-relations training are difficult to quantify, but one company which can show solid results is London-based Grey Green, which put its drivers through the Skillforce course last year.
This February Grey Green collected the Castrol award for Britain's Brightest Bus Service for its central London route 24. The prize is awarded for friendliness, cleanliness, reliability, punctuality and concern for customers.
Grey Green's managing director John Pycroft sees Skillplace's course fees as money well spent: "We felt the drivers would take more notice of an outside company," he explains. "They can see we are spending money and care about the way in which they deal with the public."
Skillplace is returning to Grey Green this year to run another customerrelations course for new drivers. "We feel it is more beneficial than doing the training ourselves," says Pycroft. "Basically we know what needs to be expressed, but it is one thing having your own management staff telling them, and another having a specialist company from outside."
Driver training for the PSV test is carried out in the company's fleet of liveried single and double-deckers, which it leases from South Wales Transport.
The vehicles, mainly Bristols, cover the full range of PSV classes, and later this year Evans hopes to branch out into HGV driver training: "If we can get our instructors through the HGV course this year we will be in a position to take advantage of the market opened up by the new licensing regulations which look likely."
The HGV project, however, will not be started until all the Skillplace instructors are qualified to RTITB standards, says Evans: "I don't believe in taking people's money until we can show that we have set our own standards."
1:1 by Paul Newman