About Stagecoach South East

Key facts May 2015 – April 2016  

• 45.1 million passenger journeys 
• 20.7 million miles operated 
• 1,343 employees 
• 473 buses and coaches 
• 99.6% reliability 
• 94.9% punctuality

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Our passengers

We carried over 45.1 million passengers during the year. 

We received a total of 2,536 passenger complaints about our services which equates to one complaint per 17,793 passengers.

We comply with our industry code of practice, and every complaint is investigated and action taken to avoid repetition of the problem.

Our staff

We’re a major employer in the community. Our staff are fully trained in courses relevant to their professions. 

We have: 

• 1,343 staff 
• 1,032 drivers 
• 205 engineers and cleaners 
• 106 support staff, supervisors and managers 

Our drivers complete an ongoing programme to achieve their driver Certificates of Professional Competence (CPC).

Our engineers are all skilled workers and we currently employ 11 apprentices to provide skills for the future.

Our supervisors and managers have all completed relevant training courses for their various professions.

Our services

We operated over 20.7 million miles during the year. Our key measure of performance is the reliability and punctuality of our services.

In the past year we operated 99.6% of our scheduled services. We monitor our services for punctuality and 94.9% of our services operated within 5 minutes of their scheduled time, traffic congestion being the main reason for delay.

We continue to seek improvements both through rescheduling services and in discussions with our local highway authorities.

Our fares

We offer value for money fares and ticket options including standard single fares and unlimited travel zone tickets. 

We also have a range of special tickets for students, young people and jobseekers.

We increased some of our fares by an average of 3% this year.

Our fleet

We operate a fleet of 460 buses and 13 coaches and have a programme of investment that replaces older vehicles each year - our entire fleet will be DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) compliant by the end of December 2016.

New buses are introduced to our busiest routes, ensuring the highest possible number of customers benefit from these modern, comfortable and environmentally friendly vehicles.

Servicing our buses

All our vehicles are inspected by our engineers at least every 3 weeks, and maintained to much higher standards than the legal minimum, to ensure safety and comfort. Every vehicle is cleaned daily.

Our environment

We used 2.6 million gallons of diesel last year, at an average of 7.87 miles per gallon. We are working to improve fuel consumption through technical measures, and all our drivers have completed a Safe and Fuel Efficient Driving course. 

All our fleet (except biofuel buses) runs on low sulphur diesel, with a high-tech additive Envirox to reduce pollution and improve fuel consumption. Vehicle engines must meet increasingly higher Euro standards of exhaust emissions and 90% of our fleet meets at least the Euro 3 standard with this figure expected to increase to 100% by the start of 2017. 

We recycle most of our waste, such as litter, used oils, filters, batteries, parts, etc. We also recycle the water we use to wash our vehicles every night.

We have a company Green Team with members representing different job roles from all our seven depots. The team has been given special training and looks at each depot’s energy, recycling and sustainability performance and suggests areas for further improvement. So far the Green Team has helped facilitate an increased rate of recycling and an investment in more energy efficient lighting.

All our buses are equipped with an eco-driving system called Green Road. The system gives drivers an indication of how they are driving via a green, amber and red warning device which reduces fuel consumption by encouraging better driving practices.

Our community

We play a big part in the local community and we enable thousands of people to go about their everyday activities.

We have Quality Bus Partnership schemes set up in the majority of the main urban areas in the region, where we work together with our partners, in particular local authorities, to improve local bus services. 

We support a number of community groups and good causes and our corporate charity is Pilgrims Hospices    in east Kent.  Our staff take part in regular fundraising events for the charity, this year four teams of employees from Dover and Thanet depots entered the hospice’s It’s a Knockout event. Our ‘Storm Loopers’ team from Thanet finished in first place while one of our Dover teams finished second!

Two of our drivers from Thanet depot, Garry Warren and Jake Bowd, successfully completed the 2016 Virgin Money London Marathon in April for the charity Children with Cancer UK. Garry and Jake ran the 26 miles in 4 hours 43 minutes and 4 hours 18 minutes respectively and have raised over £6,700 for their chosen charity.

Hastings driver Kiki Brown also completed the 2016 Virgin Money London Marathon as well as running the Hastings half marathon, raising over £1,100 for her chosen charity Macmillan Cancer Support.