Transport User Voice – Oxford Bus Company – how they used the Bus Passenger Survey

30 June 2017

Across the country bus operators use the Bus Passenger Survey to drive improvements on behalf of passengers. We recently met up with the Oxford Bus Company to hear how it’s using the survey to make a difference for passengers.

In our survey passengers rate their satisfaction with a wide range of aspects of their bus journey including waiting for the bus, the bus driver as well as their overall satisfaction with that bus journey and their rating of value for money. The results can be used to pinpoint areas to focus on.

By taking BPS results out on the road to meet dozens of bus operators we get a real sense of how the data is being used. Oxford Bus Company, part of Go-Ahead group, scored 91 per cent satisfaction in the latest survey but it’s not resting on its laurels and is using the feedback in the report to improve its customer offering.

So how what did the Oxford Bus Company perform and how is it responding to the survey?

This year’s report identified lower passenger satisfaction with the time it takes to board the bus, compared with two years ago. So Oxford Bus Company now has buses that allow passengers to make contactless payment, the first across the Go-Ahead bus group.

This year’s survey highlighted information provided inside the bus as an area for improvement with 66 per cent of passengers satisfied. Having listened to passengers in our survey, around half of Oxford Bus Company’s buses on its City services have now been upgraded with new audio-visual systems. They plan to introduce a welcome video on services in the coming weeks.

A new enhanced customer service training course is being rolled out across the company to help make customers feel welcome on services and to improve passenger satisfaction with the greeting by drivers (which scored 77 per cent in our survey). To provide a better environment for customers on board the bus a new fleet of 20 new park and ride buses were also launched with features such as sofas style seats, tables and USB ports.

Following passenger feedback about the cleanliness of buses a new company has taken on cleaning in the last few months to try to improve this. Branding is also set to change for each route to help passengers identify their local services.

The improvements are great examples of how the voice of the passenger can go a long way to helping deliver better local bus services. We’ll be watching to see how passengers rate their journey on Oxford Bus Company in our next survey later this year.

For all the Autumn 2016 Bus Passenger Survey results click here.

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