York Pullman Bus Company
The challenge
In 2008 the City of York Council sought bids for a combined tender package of both home to school journeys and local bus services. York Pullman at that time had no experience in operating local bus services or in the completion of a local authority bidding process that involved, pre-qualification, a quality assessment, e-tendering as well as competitive pricing.
York Pullman turned to Network Creative to help put together this tender package. This involved initial research into the current operating patterns and the creation of a vehicle working plan that involved the school contracts working around the provision of the local bus services. A budget and costing sheet was also created to price up the operation. A high quality assessment document was written to answer all the quality issues required by the City of York Council. This included Safety, Service Management, the Environment, Capability and Experience and Equal Opportunities. The quality assessment documents produced The City of York Council initially let only the home to school contracts which were won by York Pullman and commenced in September 2008. The local bus service contracts were then re-tendered to commence in April 2009. York Pullman used the previously completed plans to re-tender and won all but one of the contracts awarded. Implementation Network Creative also assisted with the expertise required to put these services onto the road. This required the acquisition of 6 low floor vehicles which, along with already acquired double deckers, could operate the 6 vehicle workings that also incorporated 3 daily school contracts. One of the low floor buses acquired for the services Each vehicle had to be fitted with LED destination equipment and repainted into the iconic York Pullman livery. One vehicle was also fitted with an extension to it’s fuel tank because of the daily mileage involved. A ticketing system also had to be bought along with the development of day, weekly and monthly ticketing products. A combined timetable leaflet was then printed ready for the new services to commence along with the service information being placed on the company web-site. Each service had to be registered with the traffic commissioner along with a system to record and claim BSOG on the fuel used on these services. The services were launched successfully in April 2009.
Further Development
York Pullman took the concepts introduced by Network Creative and used them to develop their service operating between the University and York Railway Station. This also incorporated the use of school contracts to supplement the revenue on the service.
Conclusion
The combined local bus and schools services have run successfully and profitably until the local bus and open top services of York Pullman were acquired by Transdev in January 2012.
Network Creative is able to provide a range of expert services, advice and innovative solutions for small and medium sized passenger transport operators or local authorities. We offer a personal service which is both practical and affordable.