I struggle to put to words the incompetence that Stagecoach West continues to show in running a bus service.
We understand completely that there is a driver shortage. Nobody, or nobody who understands it is somewhat out of their control, disputes this. However slapping that as an excuse on your mismanagement of day to day operations for the past 18 odd months is taking passengers for fools and showing little consideration for people who pay you money every month for a dogs dinner of a service.
To start with, still, 18 months into this driver shortage, Gloucester and Cheltenham fail to list cancellations anywhere but the app in the morning. This makes it extremely difficult to plan ahead. As well as that there is a massive punctuality problem, caused by multiple factors. Factor 1 is that buses run late because they are carrying two/three/four bus loads due to cancellations. Factor 2 is that vehicles used on certain routes (i.e MMCs on 10) are unsuitable and the slow acceleration matched with the door locking system and the fact that stops are just seconds apart means that keeping to time with the vehicles is very difficult. Factor 3 is that certain drivers, including leading drivers and supervisors, have a problem with not running on time for the sake of a longer break, putting to shame the effort of colleagues to run a punctual service. There are drivers who are known to do this every single day and don't get told off for it. I've witnessed a leading driver delay a service by 10 minutes to pick a trident up because they prefer driving them. Stagecoach are payed hundreds of thousands to run their school contracts and yet today one service began 25 minutes late because a 10 needed to be covered before hand, and started 20 minutes late in the afternoon without a reason.
The culture within the depots are poor. Drivers feel overworked and undervalued. There is clear favouritism towards certain drivers which creates a bad environment. There are leading drivers that are clearly in the position due to the fact that they are enthusiasts, they have no prior industry knowledge and a fair few had barely been there 12-18 months before getting promoted. There are other drivers on fixed school rotas who aren't actually rostered any routes during the day, instead having a variety of routes that, generally, they enjoy driving, rather than your 9 to Tuffley. The link between the Commercial department and Operations department seems weaker than ever, and the union is generally recognised as weak. Scheduling is so on and off - some services impossible to meet times (e.g 10) with others being far too slow. The staff turnover is horrific.
To top it all off, this is all going to mean nothing from Sunday as promised by the MD! The magic wand will be waved and we shall never see such incompetence again. I highly recommend you listen to the BBC interview from a few weeks ago where the MD makes some claims that come with high expectation and anticipation:
https://t.co/HIwcCZWdhv
I could seriously go on for lots longer. I haven't even bothered to mention the Races - but any Stagecoach passenger dare moan about that! They're only trying their best, sending a load of drivers to the races after all. I appreciate this isn't sourced at some points however you can take it on the word of Gloucester staff...
