Monthly Archives: December 2010

What is the point?

A couple of days ago a notice went up in the depot explaining that on certain routes a return ticket would cost the same as a single for a limited period. Sounds like good marketing you may think. Oh No! Why? The only people to be told of this promotional offer appear to be the drivers. Today I drove one of the routes on which the offer applies and from the first to last request for a return ticket the customer asked me to clarify the price. “That’s a single price, I asked for a return”. “No, it’s more than that” etc. (What an honest lot of customers we have!). I then explained to them that this was a promotional price for a limited period. Other drivers have told me that on overhearing this buyers of weekly tickets said that they wouldn’t be buying a weekly again while returns were the same price as singles.

The good news is that this ‘promotion’ is not upsetting regular passengers but neither is it making them think I ‘must use the bus more’ or ‘bus travel is really easier than I thought’. These people are the already converted, they know the price and have the money in their hand to pay it. They are there because they know the bus is easy, convenient and good value. Stagecoach are giving away money to the converted!

If this promotion were aimed at encouraging people who don’t regularly use a bus to give it a go I’d be all in favour of it. But Stagecoach seem to want to keep it secret. The obvious place to see it promoted would be on the website I thought so I went to the Stagecoach website for our area. As you’ll see there is link ‘….click here for special offers …’. Click on the link and there’s not a mention of the return for a price of a single.

I’ve done lots of Google searches using every combination of words relevant to this and can’t find this promotion anywhere. Either no press releases had been issued, or they’ve not been picked up on. No one I know has seen any advertising of this promotion.

Today I probably ‘ collected £20 less than I would have if the normal fare had been charged on returns. Multiply that by however long this ‘giveaway’ lasts and the number of drivers on affected routes and the money soon mounts up. This is wasted money which could have spent on real marketing ….. or a Christmas bonus for drivers ;-) The only explanation I can think of for just giving the money away is that as the year nears its end the marketing budget is underspent and if it’s not all used they’ll get less next year! No time to plan the marketing of the promotion, just run it and use up the money!

The Apprentice

I gave up watching this programme during the last series because it started to bore me. Then I read that the task on last night’s programme was to set up and run bus tours. Just the sort of thing to interest me I thought. But, what a waste of time! I wouldn’t employ any one of this year’s contestants – complete waste of space. The only bit of the programme which made me sit up was seeing where the winning team were sent as their reward for ‘success’ – The Atlantic Hotel, Jersey where Essy and I spent our honeymoon 4 years ago.

Stagecoach chief Brian Souter mulls dedicated ‘Granny Bus’ for pensioners

That’s a headline from The Daily Telegraph of today.

Brian Souter is obviously unaware that Stagecoach in Winchester already run such a bus – the 6A service. I honestly can’t recall the last time I had a fare paying passenger on this service. It would however be unfair to call it a ‘Granny Bus’ because at least as many Grandads use the service. The 6A service is a 20 minute loop around what is almost predominately areas of housing for the elderly. What I hate most about the route is that the timings are set as if it were a mixed passenger type route not one where you have to wait whilst each passenger slowly makes their way to a seat and then with arthritic joints slowly lowers themselves into a sitting position. The other problem is that due to the narrow roads and tight bends a low floor bus would struggle in places so a stepped Dart is allocated to the route. Our stepped Darts have a pole in the middle of the steps and it’s painful to observe passengers struggling to raise their feet high enough for each step whilst trying to lift and manoeuvre a shopping trolley or walking frame around the other side of the pole.

Flocking well

That may well sound like something James Naughtie might stumble over on the Today programme but it’s about the birds I see on my route.

It seems that the colder the weather becomes the larger each flock of birds becomes. Today I’ve seen immense flocks of fieldfares, or rather mutations of fieldfares as I wrote in January. Also large flock of starlings, sparrows, rooks and wood pigeons. It’s the wood pigeon flocks which seem to have increased the most in size. Any field of greens seems to be smothered in wood pigeons. As I passed one such field they suddenly took flight and flew in front of the bus, it’s not uncommon to hit one bird but in the space of a few seconds I think I hit 5 or 6! They seemed to be everywhere, a couple hit the windscreen, there were several bangs on aluminium body panels and at least one hit the nearside mirror which folded back and twisted.

One highlight of today was the crossing of the road in front of the bus by four deer. They didn’t suddenly appear rushing across the road but were almost orderly. I was able to slow the bus and the passengers were all able to have a good look at them. These are wild deer which I frequently see far off in the fields and which are spooked by the slightest sound or movement, yet today they were almost docile. Are they starving because of the snow and frozen ground?

Today I also saw a Barn Owl flying low over a field in the middle of the day. What chance did he have of catching a mouse or vole with the temperature below zero? I think all mice and voles would be holed up and asleep. Then again one may venture out as did the other animal I’d expect to be sleeping through the freezing weather, a grey squirrel. He too rushed across the road and up a snowy bank.