Classic Slap for Operator

It’s not often they make mention of a bus company on Classic FM. It was yesterday morning, during the programme hosted by Simon Bates (yes, the very same who Classic FM deprecatingly described as doing “a couple of decades working for a pop music radio station”. Perhaps he should bring back a classical “Our Tune”).

Classic FM announced that Britain’s biggest bus company was finding it tough at the fuel pumps, though First’s results were in line with expectations. Bit of a non-item really but not especially positive. Perhaps it was a slow news day, because later during Classic Reports they piped up, straight-banana-style, about the EU banning church organs, guaranteed to raise the blood pressure of any Saints-Saens loving Classic FM listener.

First seems to be in the news quite a lot, lately. Not all of it’s been positive. Omnibuses has tried its best to be as beneficent as possible. You can’t help feeling that the group needs a little help.

It was therefore interesting to read an interview in routeONE last week, with the June 2005 appointed MD, Nicola Shaw. Her performance-driven focus is ensuring First is seeing “green shoots”. Not Tilling- or leaf-green shoots, though. As she puts it simply, “we have turned the corner”.

To her credit, since her appointment, she’s attended each Public Inquiry that her subsidiaries have faced. When a group MD makes that sort of commitment, the traffic commissioners should be impressed. So, that’s three PIs in her first six months – but Shaw has systems in place to ensure there’s not a fourth.

This is partly down to a SLAP. The unlikely-named SLAP might smack of acronyms gone berserk but it may prove a big hit with the traffic commissioners and public, from whom Shaw might expect a pat on the back. It stands for “safety, lost mileage, appearance and punctuality” and between them, SLAP is designed to reduce slapdash operations.

In spite of fuel-induced fares rises, Shaw believes that the big city councils are with her. She’s naturally enthusiastic about ftr, for example, and north Manchester’s punctuality improvement partnership. She acknowledges her critics among the PTEs.

When asked whether she was prepared to cut the apron strings from troubled First Devon & Cornwall, she was emphatic in her response. “No.” Whether that’s because First wishes to remain the biggest can’t be said but she’s looking forward to when it’s the best, as well. “Increasingly, the public will know its something they can rely on.” That may even make news on Classic FM.