About Stagecoach North East

Key facts May 2017 – April 2018

• Almost 62 million passenger journeys were made on Stagecoach North East buses
• Almost 18.5 million miles operated across the North East
• 1,361 staff employed across six Stagecoach North East depots
• 432 buses across Newcastle, South Shields, Sunderland, Hartlepool and Teesside
• 99.4% reliability 
• 93.2% punctuality 

 

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Our people

We are a major employer in the local economy, with 1,361 staff, of whom 1,074 are drivers, 180 are engineers and 108 are administration and managerial staff. The majority of our employees live within the local communities in which our buses operate.

Over the past year, 79 new drivers were trained to become PCV licence holders. In total, 123 drivers (including existing licence holders, new recruits and transfers) have been placed in our local depots. Our drivers also attend certified classroom courses during the year to maintain their Driver Qualification Card, which requires them to maintain and improve their skills through regular training updates.

We also work with drivers continuously to improve driving skills and use a monitoring system on the buses called GreenRoad. Using a traffic-light LED system on the dashboard, GreenRoad gives drivers instant feedback on their driving manoeuvres, encouraging smoother, safer, and more fuel-efficient driving.

In the last year, 254 drivers (24%) received Fleet Elite awards for their exceptional driving standards. An impressive 163 of these drivers achieved the Gold badge for consistently maintaining the Fleet Elite driving standard for three consecutive years.

We are active in getting more young people into our company through the Stagecoach Apprenticeship Scheme, and currently employ 12 engineering apprentices from within the local community.

Many of our employees have shown impressive commitment and loyalty to Stagecoach and the bus industry in general. This year, 96 long-serving staff were acknowledged after accumulating an impressive 2,655 years of service between them, and each one was recognised for their prolonged hard work and commitment over the years at a celebration dinner and awards ceremony.

Our customers

Our customers made a total of almost 62 million journeys on our buses throughout the year, in the same period, we received 2449 complaints, equivalent to one complaint for every 25,300 passenger journeys.

Our established Twitter account provides regular service updates from our depot teams and also a contact point for enquiries and comments. We also have a local customer communications team to maintain and improve customer services through social media, telephone, email and web based channels. These channels are used as platforms from which to engage our customer base in our promotional and operational activities.

Our environment 

Our buses

We operate a fleet of 432 buses and have invested millions in new buses for local areas over the last couple of years, all of which are fully accessible and meet the latest Euro emission standards.

With newer buses featuring USB charging points, a total of 210 buses in the North East are now also fitted with free WI-FI for the convenience of our customers.

 

Our services

We operated almost 18 ½ million miles over the last year and passengers made almost 62 million journeys.
 
The key measures of our performance are the reliability and punctuality of those journeys and, in the past year, we operated 99.4% of our scheduled services and, of the 0.6% of scheduled journeys that we did not operate, 0.04% was due to factors within our control, such as driver and vehicle allocation, and 0.56% was due to factors out of our control such as bad weather, road closures and traffic congestion.

We monitor our services for punctuality and, in the past year, our AVL system tracked 97.4% of all scheduled journeys. Despite another year of an exceptional number of work schemes across the region, of these, 92.3% operated within 5 minutes of their scheduled time. We continue to seek improvement both through rescheduling services and in discussions with our local highway authorities.

 

Investments

The Stagecoach Bus App offers a simple journey planning tool which uses interactive maps and the smartphone GPS system to help customers identify their nearest bus stop and the most suitable bus service for their journey requirements. Passengers can also find out information on journey length and available fare options and access live running times via their smartphone to check the status of their journey before catching the bus.

In addition, the app enables customers to pinpoint their location during their journey, helping them determine where they are on the route at any one time, how far they are from their destination and when to get off the bus, which is particularly beneficial to those who are not regular bus users.

Daily and weekly mobile tickets are now available via the app for the first time, allowing customers to use one app to instantly buy and download tickets straight to their smartphone.

Contactless, smart ticketing and mobile tickets offer yet more convenience to customers and helps to reduce dwell times whilst speeding up customer journeys. The first bus company in the group to introduce contactless payments across its entire fleet, the technology at Stagecoach North East now captures 22.3% of our on-bus sales.

 

Our community

The North East team is tireless in its dedication to supporting local communities. Through campaigns like Green Santa, Catch the Bus Week, Green Week and National Customer Service Week, we’ve given away goody bags, free travel vouchers and grants to local schools, individuals and groups.

In December 2017, Stagecoach North East's Christmas fundraising campaign raised over £20,000 for local charities around the region. Led by driving staff in Newcastle and delivered by the hard, collaborative work between key departments within the company, the project was a huge hit with customers and employees alike.

We are also a major employer in the local community and enable thousands of people to go about their daily activities.
 
We work with many local organisations to improve transport access and information. In spring 2017, a new initiative with Middlesbrough Foodbank saw its community members benefit from free travel on local Stagecoach services and was soon replicated in Billingham.

In 2018, Stagecoach North East became a key sponsor of the Great Exhibition of the North, the nation’s biggest event of the year which celebrates northern triumphs in all its forms. With discounted tickets available to countless GEOTN volunteers and an additional route added to our City Sightseeing service in Newcastle, we’re playing a vital role in delivering the campaign across the region.

Meet some of our team

Head Office:

Depots: