Double award win for Stagecoach at National Transport Awards

Stagecoach was named in the winning team for two awards at the National Transport Awards.

The transport group’s employee experience app won the award for ‘Most Innovative Transport Project of the Year’ in partnership with Blink (https://joinblink.com). Stagecoach introduced the Blink mobile and desktop app in 2018, which is now available to all of Stagecoach’s employees. Around 24,000 employees now have access to the mobile app to find out company news, communicate with colleagues, provide feedback and access training and policies.

In this year’s Group-wide employee survey, satisfaction with how the company kept employees informed improved by 4% year on year, reflecting the investment in the new Blink app.

Stagecoach Group Change Director, Lesley Ashman, said: “We’ve worked really hard with the Blink team to deliver the platform to around 24,000 thousand employees in a relatively short space of time. It’s a great tribute to all the team to be recognised for most innovative transport project.

“Blink is already helping to increase the level of employee engagement right across our business and has become a valuable internal communications tool. We’ve seen satisfaction with keeping people informed increase by 4% in the latest employee survey which is a great start and we’re looking forward to improving this even further.”

Sean Nolan, CEO of Blink said, "It's great to see the Stagecoach team recognised for leading the way in digitising the frontline employee experience. The Blink employee super app provides bus drivers and engineers access to their routes, policies, and holiday request forms on their personal phones, all the while reducing reliance on depot notice boards and paper waste. Measurable productivity benefits make bus drivers' jobs easier, but at the end of the day it’s the stories from the frontline that transform our app into a digital community and boost engagement with the company culture."

Stagecoach was also part of the winning team in the category ‘Improvements to Bus Services’ for the Liverpool City Region (LCR) Bus Alliance for delivering growth in partnership for the region. Along with the LCR Combined Authority and partners in the Liverpool City Bus Alliance; Merseytravel, Arriva and most recently Cumfybus, Stagecoach has delivered millions of pounds of investment in Merseyside’s bus network to make travel more reliable, easier and better value for customers.

Rob Jones, Managing Director for Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire said: “We’re really proud to be part of the winning team in Merseyside, and this is a credit to all the partners who have worked together to deliver major improvements to the region’s bus services.

“As a result of the Liverpool City Region Bus Alliance, the city region has one of the youngest and most environmental friendly bus fleets in the country with WiFi as standard. In addition, we are also the only region outside London with a 100% bus network accepting contactless payments. By working together and making the best joint use of resources, bus operators and the transport authority have delivered a 15% increase in fare paying passenger journeys since 2013/14 and have 91% customer satisfaction among bus users, the joint highest of any metropolitan area in England.”

Matt Goggins, Head of Bus for the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority said: "This award is a testament to the efforts put in by the Bus Alliance to improve services for bus users in the Liverpool City Region.

"Whether it's introducing contactless payment on all buses or the 'Better by Bus' campaign, a lot has gone into encouraging people to use the bus more and this is down to the hard work put in by staff across all the organisations."

The National Transport Awards celebrates the successes that have been achieved on so many national and local transport projects. These projects have shown the judges the tangible results they've achieved, improving the experience for their transport users and ultimately adding to the successful development of the nation’s transport infrastructure. For more information about the National Transport Awards, visit transporttimes.co.uk. 

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