Leading professional body, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), has today released findings from a detailed survey completed by leading companies in the bus and coach sector. 

The results of the survey reflect on the state of the bus industry in the UK in 2014/2015 and have been published in advance of the launch of CILT’s new sector-specific benchmarking club for the Bus and Coach industry; Busmark. The official launch of Busmark will take place in May 2015. 

The enlightening results of the survey have confirmed that the importance of the bus and coach industry’s role lies at the heart of local communities. Findings include: 

• A staggering 85% of the bus and coach companies surveyed give support to local charitable causes and local community activities
• The industry boasts an extremely diverse workforce, with the companies in the survey having more than 15% of staff from ethnic minorities and more than 10% female
• Bus and Coach Companies are at the forefront of using modern technology to help passengers and improve their operations, with almost 2/3 having invested in such systems

Busmark will enable bus and coach companies, whether large or small, to join this sector-specific benchmarking club. An annual survey will be analysed by specialist CILT staff, returning detailed feedback to each club member in a traffic light format showing how they compare with their peers. 

Operators will meet quarterly to consider and debate solutions to the challenges faced by Busmark members as well as discuss modern business innovation all of which is aimed at improving the quality of service to their passengers.

Austin Birks, Chairman of the Busmark Steering Committee said: ‘Busmark has captured the attention of the UK Bus industry already. With operators of various fleet sizes from across the UK jumping on board to see how they perform, what they do well and how they might improve. Benchmarking identifies best practice, as well as any room for performance improvement, that can help drive the continuous improvement of operations and service delivery – Busmark has been designed to improve the product to the people who really count, the passengers.’