It was a nightmare journey on public transport from Brighton to East Grinstead in 2006 that was largely the inspiration for Tom Druitt to look into starting a bus company. He had no background in the industry at all and no significant capital of his own, but a lack of multi-modal coordination and delays on that visit to see his parents ultimately led to the creation of The Big Lemon.
“I got home and did the maths,” says Tom from one of the operator’s small depots on the outskirts of Brighton. “It had taken me about six hours to travel to see my family for about an hour and, if I’d have driven, it would have taken less than an hour each way. And I just thought, ‘It’s so urgent for loads of reasons that we move to more sustainable means of transport and try to use public transport as much as we can. But, if this is the difference in the experience, then it’s not really a viable alternative.’”
To that end, he held a public meeting to invite the community to air their views on public transport and the responses from that well-attended event shaped his vision for a bus operation. Tom explains the three most sought-after core values that emerged in that room above a pub were that bus services should: serve the community rather than shareholders, be environmentally conscious, and enhance the passenger experience.
Why are we doing this? It’s definitely not to make money as there are lot of easier ways to make money! So, I’ve always viewed this as: We make money in order to run bus services; corporates run bus services in order to make money – Tom Druitt
He and childhood friend Graeme Simpson put together their £10,000 savings but needed also to sell shares to the community at £100 each in order to raise enough for them to jointly found the business. They hit a major issue six weeks from launch date when an institutional investor pulled out their £20,000 – three quarters of the fund — but they ended up selling more to the community and ultimately this meant more for the smaller investors. “It felt right that it was the community that funded the vehicles,” he says.
However, it was, of course, not without many more obstacles, especially for someone new to the industry. “We just approached it step by step,” he says. “I didn’t have a bus licence, I’d never driven a bus, never been employed by a bus company and didn’t know anything about it. That made it very challenging, but it also meant I came at it very much as a passenger, thinking every day ‘how can we make this experience better for passengers?’”
Perhaps deciding upon the name of the business was one of the easier tasks. Tom wanted the buses to stand out so went for yellow, and then the epiphany came when he passed a greengrocer selling lemons.
Community at the core
Since launch in 2007 and through many ups and downs, The Big Lemon has sought to stick to those three missions which came out of the public meeting. When it comes to that of serving the community rather than the bank balance, that has meant on occasion keeping the unprofitable routes running. “For me it’s all about: ‘Why are we doing this?’ What is the point? It’s definitely not to make money as there are lot of easier ways to make money! So, I’ve always viewed this as: We make money in order to run bus services; corporates run bus services in order to make money.”
When the local main bus company started to take the new upstart seriously in 2011, The Big Lemon realised it would have to change its business plan as it couldn’t compete directly and it has since moved to more of a contract-based rather than commercial model.
The Big Lemon now runs three routes in Brighton, while it moved into the West Country to rescue abandoned services in 2022, now operating one in Bristol, one in Bath and one in South Gloucestershire. It also operates Bristol Community Transport and Dial-a-Ride services.
In 2021, The Big Lemon bought Seaford and District Motor Services and that continues to independently run services further afield in Sussex. It had already, in 2020, partnered with Seaford and District to create Brighton Horizon Coaches.
Sustainability is paramount
One of those core values for which Big Lemon has become well known is sustainability. From the beginning, it operated services on waste cooking oil from restaurants. “We used to collect the oil from local restaurants,” Tom says. “For a period of time, we actually bought the fresh oil, delivered it to the restaurants, we’d collect their waste at the same time and then take it to Eastbourne for processing and then pick up the processed biodiesel that they made on the way back.”
That became unviable by 2017 due to a lack of availability and compatibility with more modern vehicles. It turned instead to battery-electric and it has been gradually converting its fleet, which is now up to 20 zero-emission vehicles in Brighton. It has installed solar panels on the roof in its depot which provide enough power to fully charge two vehicles.
Clean Air Day in June 2022 was the first day that the Big Lemon ran all its public services on electric and, in August that year, it did so with all its private contract services too.
It has recently invested in six used buses in a bid to run all of its services in Brighton and Bristol on electric. Tom also furthered the cause by organising the London to Brighton Electric Vehicle Rally in 2021 and 2022.
Tom believes the government needs to do more to help operators on the path to the still-to-be-announced cut-off dates for the sale of new non-zero-emissions coaches and buses, noting that the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas schemes have not provided a viable business model for many situations.
“I am worried, especially about the independent operators, because in or around 2030 or whenever it happens, unless that technology comes down a huge amount in price, it’s going to price a lot of people out. We’ve got a bit of a head-start, we know how it works and can build a business model around it but, for people who have no experience of it and haven’t built that into their business model, it’s going to be impossible without a huge amount of support. And I think what we’ll end up with is only the big PLCs and a handful of four or five medium-sized operators that got themselves organised and really moved early who will be operating in about eight years’ time.
“If you’re nearing retirement and you’ve got a little family firm of coaches or buses, you don’t want all that stress and that transition is going to be a big job. I don’t think we as an industry are ready for it.”
Customer focus
Customer service, the third vital element to stem from that public meeting, has remained important to Tom.
“The first thing we tell our drivers to do is to give a big smile, say hello, and give them a nice welcome onto the bus,” he says. “We train everyone to be conscious of people finding a seat, so the bus doesn’t take off when they’re halfway down the aisle, and to move off gradually.
“Also, things like slowing down for bus stops, even if no one has rung the bell or hailed you.” Given that the operator tends to run services that are not frequent, the drivers even get to know passengers by name, Tom says.
“I think it does get more difficult to provide that personal service consistently when you get bigger,” says Tom, admitting there are exceptions to this. “And this has really informed our growth strategy because I don’t want to become the next big PLC running hundreds of buses with hundreds of drivers. That’s not what we’re about.”
Looking back on the vision
So how well does Tom feel that The Big Lemon has satisfied the need of that frustrated traveller of 18 years ago and the attendees of the subsequent public meeting?
Tom ponders: “It’s very easy to criticise services that someone else has provided but, when you have a go yourself, you realise just how difficult it is, but this is why sticking to those values is really important. We mess up all the time and sometimes, with the best will in the world, you can’t deliver what you’ve promised, but then it goes back to how do you deal with that. You tell people, make it right for them.”
Tom learned that back in the first year of operation when he awoke from the late driving shift to find that two of his drivers hadn’t turned up for work. He was unable to operate either of the two services at the time, which led to a Public Inquiry from the Traffic Commissioner.
I think what we’ll end up with is only the big PLCs and a handful of four or five medium–sized operators that got themselves organised and really moved early who will be operating in about eight years’ time – Tom Druitt
“I think a lot of people lost faith in the service at that point and it took quite a long time to build it back up again,” he said. “There was a question of: This has all gone very wrong very quickly, are we going to be able to get over this?”
He says: “Looking back, I’d like to think I’d have done it anyway but, realistically speaking, if I’d known about all of the challenges and all of the things that could go wrong, the sleepless nights and the worry about x, y, and z, there’s a high possibility that maybe it would never have happened. In hindsight, I’m quite grateful that I went in blind.”
Through those bitter moments, The Big Lemon has stuck to its mission and, as the saying goes, turned the lemons into lemonade.
