Platinum – First Aberdeen’s new premium brand
Vehicles
The buses used for the upgrade are not new; they were all delivered in 2008 and have been comprehensively refurbished by Thornton Brothers. Of the 12 buses to undergo refurbishment, 11 are double deck Wrightbus Gemini bodied Volvo B9TLs; the exception being a Wrightbus bodied Volvo B7RLE. Though the quality has been enhanced, the configuration of the buses remained unaltered. Of the approximately £300,000 spent on introducing Platinum, roughly two thirds was spent on the refurbishment of the buses.
Some of the specially liveried buses have now started to appear with commercial advertising for other products, which arguably lessens the initial impact
The same buses were previously operated on the 19, and while they were away being upgraded, a number of former London Dennis Tridents Plaxton Presidents were drafted in as cover. These carried special messages during their time on the 19 indicating that ‘We’re visiting Aberdeen for a short time while our sister buses are off getting a makeover. Look out for their return in November 2013!’
Asked why he had gone for refurbished buses rather than new, Duncan explained that the business had already introduced 23 new Enviro300 buses with wi-fi, e-Leather seats and extra buggy room for the 17/18 Northern Lights services in the summer. These two routes have a lengthy common corridor and their 15 minutes frequencies give a combined 7-8 minute frequency over the common section, hence the common Northern Lights branding.
Duncan continued, ‘we wanted to introduce Platinum to a service where everything else was stable so that we could accurately measure its performance. The 19 had been at a 12-minute frequency for over a year, having gone from a 15 minute frequency in September 2012. In terms of the routing it didn’t change in the network review of 2012,’ said Duncan.
He was pleased with the work that Thornton Brothers had done and found them responsive to any concerns expressed. The buses arrived back three at a time and were then held back until the entire batch could be launched together.
For the launch of Platinum, three drivers wore dark glasses mimicking the Top Gun movie as the buses were unveiled amid a firework display
The launch itself was a high profile affair that involved shutting of a quarter of the yard and decorating three presentation bays from which three of the buses in the new colours emerged while fireworks went off around them. Present were 25 stakeholders and a similar number of company staff gathered to watch, with three members of the driving team in dark glasses posing ‘Top Gun’ style with the vehicles for the benefit of the press.
Duncan told me that with a workforce dedicated to the route, there is more staff ownership. An illustration of this was when one of the vehicles was vandalised, members of the team were genuinely upset by it. To ensure effective rostering, some 50 drivers have been trained to work the route, though some of these will not work on it every day.
All bar one of the Platinum branded buses are double deckers. The exception is this single deck Wrightbus bodied Volvo B7RLE
The PVR for the 19 is 12 buses, the same number that have been refurbished, but with MOTs and inspections planned around the peaks there should rarely be a need to substitute a non Platinum liveried bus. In the event of this being the case, one of the similarly specified Northern Lights allocation would generally substitute, as only 17 of the 23 vehicles are branded. The frequency remains the same on a Saturday, though the start is later and on Sundays the PVR is reduced because the frequency reduces to every 20 minutes.
Tantalisingly, Duncan added, ‘should we develop Platinum to another route in the next 12 months, the intention would be to have a spare bus with all the bells and whistles. I hope to be able to do something else in the next 12 months but can’t confirm it yet. Obviously we want to keep improving our offering to customers.’
Promotion
First has a national contract covering all of its external advertising space but for an initial period it bought back the rights to the buses deployed on Platinum and this strengthened the promotion of the brand for a couple of months after its launch, though many of the vehicles now have external advertising for other commercial advertisers.
Coinciding with the Platinum launch, there was a leaflet drop to 8,000 houses on the route. This contained a voucher for £1.00 off travel. Redemption rates encouragingly show a high level of infrequent, irregular and non bus users redeeming these vouchers ‘We’re confident that we’re shifting some people from car to bus’, said Duncan. A second mailing will be going out in April.
Other marketing initiatives include a dedicated Platinum microsite at www.firstaberdeen.co.uk/platinum, an online Twitter campaign, bus shelter advertising and positive coverage through an exclusive deal with local newspaper, the ‘Evening Express’. There was also television and radio coverage.
Customer promise
‘If a customer is not happy, we expect the driver to explain what has gone wrong and apologise; to treat people as you would want to be treated yourself. They would also be offered a free voucher for future travel,’ said Duncan. ‘The offer holds up even if the delay is caused by roadworks and we can do nothing about it.’
The idea of giving customers a guarantee backed by free travel vouchers is not a new one; similar schemes are in place with a number of operators, notably trentbarton, where Alex Hornby has often commented that he doesn’t think enough vouchers are given out.
Duncan agrees with Alex. ‘I’m not worried about how many vouchers are issued. I think you get a payback in customer loyalty,’ he said, qualifying this by adding, ‘I don’t want staff handing them out as a shield to avoid engaging with customers. At the end of the day, a customer is only going to accept so many free travel vouchers before he starts to look elsewhere.’ Very few have been given out so far, significantly less than on 1% of journeys, with only four or five in the first week, though more were given out in December than January because of the level of congestion caused by Christmas shoppers. It is something that the company will be tracking.
Congestion is a real issue in Aberdeen; it can be awful, especially at peaks. Duncan says the Local Authorities need to give operators more support on the issue. ‘If it keeps getting worse we’ll put more journey time in, but that’s not going to get people out of cars.’