Social Travel

[MW]

I suppose the thing to remember is we are enthusiasts, Joe Public wouldn't even know what an SPD is! Personally though I do prefer them, they have a certain Excel quality about them. I just hope it doesn't end up a Sprint route...

As nice as these new buses look to the public, personally i don't really want the 11 to get newer buses. All new buses in general seem so boring, lack of power due to all this Euro rubbish, low revving, and to top it off like the MMCs have voice recording and also they can see which pedals depressed when and which indicators etc are on at any time. It all seems a bit too Big Brother to me, I don't really feel comfortable in the MMCs sometimes. Just feels like they are waiting for some sort of complaint to give you some sort of disciplinary!

[2206]

As nice as these new buses look to the public, personally i don't really want the 11 to get newer buses. All new buses in general seem so boring, lack of power due to all this Euro rubbish, low revving, and to top it off like the MMCs have voice recording and also they can see which pedals depressed when and which indicators etc are on at any time. It all seems a bit too Big Brother to me, I don't really feel comfortable in the MMCs sometimes. Just feels like they are waiting for some sort of complaint to give you some sort of disciplinary!

I personally think the public do not care whether they get a MMC or, a 17 year old bus @MW the only reason they caught the bus in the first place was to get to their destination.

[trident4370]

As nice as these new buses look to the public, personally i don't really want the 11 to get newer buses. All new buses in general seem so boring, lack of power due to all this Euro rubbish, low revving, and to top it off like the MMCs have voice recording and also they can see which pedals depressed when and which indicators etc are on at any time. It all seems a bit too Big Brother to me, I don't really feel comfortable in the MMCs sometimes. Just feels like they are waiting for some sort of complaint to give you some sort of disciplinary!

Don't get me wrong I am loving the fact the Geminis are returning, I love all B7TLs Euro 2, Euro 3, Voith, ZF so to go from Presidents to Geminis is great for me, I just feel with a route like the 11 it is a bit of a poor show from a commercial point of view. You could ask most people in Birmingham where the 11 goes and they would be able to tell you! That makes me wonder if such equipment would ever be rolled out to existing buses, certainly wouldn't be surprised if all the Euro 4s eventually recorded sound aswell as video.

[covlad27]

Guys it's not that we're just dumping the tat on the 11, if we were going on another local route then the spds would be staying on the 11 but when you have a route that is some distance from your depot it makes sense to put your better buses there.
Remember if all goes to plan the v regs won't be staying that long & we'll one of them is staying as a spare so you still got the x reg mpd anyway.
Didn't realise you guys liked the spds so much lol

Why travel so far for a route then? Seems wierd to me

[andy41]

Don't know but he dose play it so loud the whole bus can here it.

It is not illegal to drive a PCV whilst listening to music. If it was, how many coach drivers would still have a licence? Despite the propaganda that bus companies feed their new employees, there is no such law. They simply choose to have their own rules.

The only thing you could be prosecuted for is driving without due care and attention if it was merited. This would not necessarily be directly attributable to listening to music in a court of law with a decent brief.

[Dutsey]

It is not illegal to drive a PCV whilst listening to music. If it was, how many coach drivers would still have a licence? Despite the propaganda that bus companies feed their new employees, there is no such law. They simply choose to have their own rules.

The only thing you could be prosecuted for is driving without due care and attention if it was merited. This would not necessarily be directly attributable to listening to music in a court of law with a decent brief.

To be fair if I was a passenger and got on a bus with a driver listening to music I would think this is very rude and can see why Bus Companies ban this. Customer Satisfaction is the name of the game.

[Bryan]

To be fair if I was a passenger and got on a bus with a driver listening to music I would think this is very rude and can see why Bus Companies ban this. Customer Satisfaction is the name of the game.

I would agree with this. Some companies though have low standards as regards the presentation of vehicles and drivers.

[andy41]

To be fair if I was a passenger and got on a bus with a driver listening to music I would think this is very rude and can see why Bus Companies ban this. Customer Satisfaction is the name of the game.

The question I was answering was 'isn't this illegal?' Unfortunately the quote didn't carry over in full.

[Steveminor]

Will be route training with a bus tomorrow morning if anyone wants a picture of social travel in Cannock or stafford.

[Bryan]

No doubt I will create some controversy with my thoughts, but why have Social Travel started on the 11C Outer Circle route?

1) National Express West Midlands have a daytime frequency of 7 or 8 minutes each way (on the 11A (anticlockwise) and 11C (clockwise)) during normal working hours (a route that takes about 2 1/2 hours in total). What do Social Travel offer, 8 journeys in one direction only on the 11C (all at irregular timings). How can people be expected to be loyal to a company that takes them 15 minutes to get to their destination one way, and 2 hours 15 minutes back? This assumes the service is still running late afternoon and at regular intervals.

2) What worries me also is that Social Travel fail to show any fleetnames on the vehicles I have seen on the 11C. Why not show them and promote the company?

3) A further concern is that if the management had looked into the service they are providing, they would have seen previous failures for obvious reasons of copycat operators.

[2206]

No doubt I will create some controversy with my thoughts, but why have Social Travel started on the 11C Outer Circle route?

1) National Express West Midlands have a daytime frequency of 7 or 8 minutes each way (on the 11A (anticlockwise) and 11C (clockwise)) during normal working hours (a route that takes about 2 1/2 hours in total). What do Social Travel offer, 8 journeys in one direction only on the 11C (all at irregular timings). How can people be expected to be loyal to a company that takes them 15 minutes to get to their destination one way, and 2 hours 15 minutes back? This assumes the service is still running late afternoon and at regular intervals.

2) What worries me also is that Social Travel fail to show any fleetnames on the vehicles I have seen on the 11C. Why not show them and promote the company?

3) A further concern is that if the management had looked into the service they are providing, they would have seen previous failures for obvious reasons of copycat operators.

Social Travel started the 11C at the end of March!
They are acturely doing quite well on it. @Bryan
In the future Social and DTS may look at expanding on it
If it works out well for them.

[Bryan]

Social Travel started the 11C at the end of March!
They are acturely doing quite well on it. @Bryan
In the future Social and DTS may look at expanding on it

I may be proved wrong, but I doubt it!

[2206]

I may be proved wrong, but I doubt it!

Well if they were doing badly on the 11 why are they still on it 4 months later?

[Stu]

What do Social Travel offer, 8 journeys in one direction only on the 11C (all at irregular timings). How can people be expected to be loyal to a company that takes them 15 minutes to get to their destination one way, and 2 hours 15 minutes back?

I don't think its any case of building 'company loyalty', but rather identifying where in the timetable they can maximise picking up the most cash-paying customers (or concessionary card users) that they can. That's business. When I used to live in Bearwood, and used to have a Centro Regional pass (the modern day nBus), I used to get the first 82 that turned up, whether it was NX or the other independent operator (I forget the name now sorry) that ran on there. I had no loyalty, I just wanted to get to work.

[Busman Jamie]

@Steveminor nice to see the 74 looking busy at 3.55 shortly followed by an half empty arriva decker lol