Local initiative

There has been a perception that everything new at First is centrally inspired but Duncan assured me that the introduction of Platinum had ‘no group involvement’ and had been ‘a purely local development with central support.’ ‘Central engineering helped in concluding who the supplier should be and there was discussion with the centre about what we could do with the buses and the livery, but the concept was delivered by Aberdeen.’

‘Within the building Platinum had been under discussion for roughly two years. If someone else had used the name in that time we would have been a bit stuck. It would have been bad luck but fortunately nobody did’, he said. ‘The name has to reflect what you are offering and it does do that, but it’s not all about the name. It’s about putting out a service with a brand that was something different, and that was the concept.’

Something slightly similar had been done in Aberdeen many years ago when the 17 route had been marketed as ‘Gold’ but apart from minor livery variations the buses used were not different to the standard and Platinum was in no way based on that had gone before.

He believes the development reflects the way that the First business is going with more local autonomy.

Augmented reality

A feature of the new buses and the sister 17/18 Northern Lights routes is the availability of ‘augmented reality’ by downloading an app and scanning the advertisement on the back of one of the vehicle’s seats using a suitable mobile or tablet device. Doing so opens up a channel of interactive videos with a choice of content including interviews with staff, information about services and theatre trailers. It also enables passengers to buy theatre tickets and surf the internet. First Aberdeen believes they are the first operator to employ the seat back technology on buses, though it went live in Glasgow via the customer newspaper before it did in Aberdeen.

First Aberdeen produces a quarterly customer newspaper called ‘Shout’ which is distributed on buses. Using the latest augmented reality technology the customer can scan and read articles from it as an alternative to the printed version.

Ticketing initiatives

Coinciding with the launch of Platinum, the price of the First Day ticket was reduced from £4.10 to £4.00. This was initially intended to run until the New Year but it has been continued.

In March 2013 the company had carried out a fares review which saw most prices held or reduced. Other ticketing initiatives and promotions have been run and in October the Family Weekend Day ticket was permanently reduced by 25%.

Doric and ‘Simmy’ buses

A couple of other initiatives late last year saw two buses named. One was called ‘The Doric Bus’ promoting the local dialect of north east Scotland, with posters promoting words in the dialect on the bus, as well as on other buses.

The ‘Simmy’ Bus, as it is known, has been named in honour of Neil Simpson who played over 300 times for Aberdeen after joining them in 1978, including the famous 1983 game when Aberdeen beat Real Madrid 2:1 to win the European Cup Winners Cup.

Coaches

An unusual sight in a First depot yard is the considerable number of coaches that are operated in addition to the buses. The depot has a fleet of 30 coaches which are used predominantly on contracts, though there is still a good deal of private hire undertaken and the company’s own tour programme. Duncan explained that the existence of the coach fleet reflected where the business had started from as the Grampian, Mairs and Kirkpatricks operations had all had successful coaching operations, though he accepted that a lot of other companies had found touring work both difficult and hard to bolt on to other operations. He said that while the coach fleet strength had not changed, the mix of work had, with more school contracts and less private hire now. ‘We have been able to add in a number of school contracts,’ said Duncan, with the fleet including a couple of dedicated yellow school buses on contracts for a private school. A lot of school games related work is undertaken on top of which there are contracts for an international school.

Though the focus on touring has diminished, it can still occupy four coaches in the summer and there is also a good deal of high quality private hire. In the past this has seen First coaches working at the Walker Cup and also in conjunction with the huge Offshore Europe exhibition in addition to other private function executive charter. Duncan sees the coaching side continuing to be part of the Aberdeen presence.

The vehicles used also represent some unusual makes for First. There are a number of tri-axle Volvo B12R Plaxton Excaliburs, and Volvo B12B Jonckheere Mistral 50 coaches, as well as a trio of Irizar PB coaches and four Temsa Safari HDs (two 11-plate, two 13-plate). Also fairly unusual are Plaxton Cheetah bodied Mercedes-Benz Vario minicoaches: there is even one 2005 Autobus Nouvelle example.

And on the subject of unusual vehicles, Aberdeen still has quite a sizeable number of articulated vehicles. They are useful on the 1 and 2 services serving Aberdeen University and Robert Gordon University where the capacity is needed and the ability to use the centre door is also beneficial. The route requires 16 buses in each direction.

‘It was a bit controversial to take them into the campus and off the main road but it helps more than it hinders, encouraging passenger growth and enhances our relationship with the university.’

‘We have 35 artics and we are open minded about what we will replace them with. Some will be up for replacement after the next two years. It will be high capacity,’ he said.

Last word

The new Platinum brand and other initiatives will mean little if the quality is not maintained that encourages passengers to use the buses in the first place, so a customer panel of eight ‘Secret Shoppers’ has been established, each of whom carry out five assessments a month in return for a free bus pass.

First Aberdeen’s performance in years past was not always perfect but punctuality and reliability performance is currently the best it has ever been with better than 95% of all services leaving on time. Developments like Platinum offer customers a tangible improvement to their experience without involving the operator in an outrageous level of outlay so everybody wins. I expect to see the concept used more widely, not only in Aberdeen, but elsewhere among First operations.

By Stuart Jones