KNOWING OUR STAKEHOLDERS

We have a major impact in the political, social, economic, safety and environmental arenas. So there are a great many stakeholders that we need to know, understand and work with. They include customers, rail and bus passenger groups, local, regional and state transport bodies, non government organisations, employees, suppliers, shareholders and Trades Unions, organisations like BAA and, of course, our own people.

We are getting to know them better, and are putting in place better processes to improve the way we communicate with individuals and organisations. Last year all our businesses formally identified the stakeholders they need to work with, and planned how to build more positive, active relationships with them to achieve our business goals.

The next step is to carry out detailed research, to understand better how they see us and how they want to relate to us. We need a realistic and up to date vision of the stakeholder landscape so that we can identify gaps, set priorities and move more quickly – as we have done, for example, in engaging with the Olympic Delivery Authority on plans for Stratford, the primary location for the London 2012 Olympics.

When we get to know stakeholders better, new possibilities emerge. We discover needs that we ought to be considering. And we find new opportunities to work in partnership to achieve things we could never manage on our own.

Over the past couple of years we have intensified our customer research, using mystery shoppers to monitor customer service and probing customer attitudes more deeply. One thing we have learned is that customer satisfaction is significantly higher in areas like Dundee, where we have the closest partnership with local councils and transport authorities. This is no coincidence: good partnership results in joint initiatives such as the Birmingham passenger information system described in the section Customer Service. So we are now sharing our customer research data with other stakeholders to help build stronger partnerships with them.

Our partnership with Coventry City Council and the WMPTA-Centro transport authority has resulted in improved bus services branded as PrimeLines. These aim to attract more bus customers by offering comfortable, quick, reliable and safe travel. The £42m project, backed by government funding, has been developing selected routes with new buses, shelters, information systems and CCTV security for buses and stops. Partnership is key to its success: for example, while we have invested in new quality buses, the council has introduced bus lanes and bus-priority traffic lights to allow faster journeys.

Another factor that correlates closely with customer satisfaction is employee satisfaction. We now run annual employee surveys across all our businesses, share the findings with our people and set action plans to deal with the points raised. We then follow-up with focus groups to monitor progress and to get direct feedback on what this research is telling us about our people and their satisfaction at work.

A clear lesson has emerged from this work: people who are well trained and motivated deliver not only higher customer satisfaction but consequently we see greater passenger growth. So getting these issues right delivers value for other stakeholders too – including investors. This is one reason for the DNA programme described in the section Leading the Way. It is also why our managers have employee satisfaction targets which are measured through performance appraisals. These are then fed into reward and recognition arrangements.

New challenges create the need for new partnerships – for example, as energy and environmental issues move up the political agenda. In Spain, our Alsa coach business is engaged in a major study of transport system energy consumption, in partnership with leading educational and university organisations. The project is part of a Ministry of Public Works Research and Innovation Programme linked to its Strategic Plan for Infrastructure and Transport. The Ministry is a key stakeholder for Alsa because of its role in regulating the industry.

Safety is a common concern for many stakeholder groups. In North America we join forces with the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services to promote National School Bus Safety Week. This governmentrecognised event enables us to work with students, parents, school administrators – and our own drivers – to raise safety awareness.

The key to productive stakeholder partnerships is mutual benefit. Rather than leave unused station buildings boarded up and forgotten, Central Trains is making them available to local community organisations. Working with Network Rail it has created an innovative three-way lease that gives non-commercial groups tenancies of up to 25 years at peppercorn rents of as little as £1 a year. Tenants so far include a sustainable development project, a music teaching and practice facility, a local enterprise agency and an art gallery in a converted urinal.

The expected benefits include revitalised stations for Central Trains, better maintained assets and less vandalism for Network Rail. In addition, there is greater security and an improved environment for customers, extra amenities for the community, and greater engagement for all the stakeholders involved. Everyone wins.