In his first routeone column as Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) President, Ian Luckett makes the case for talking to the media
While the CPT Annual Dinner may seem a long time ago now, this is my first opportunity to say how much I enjoyed the occasion and meeting up with so many industry colleagues.
routeone readers will have read about the contributions made by the Secretary of State for Transport and Leon Daniels, but who would have guessed that we uncovered a long-held passion for coaches and buses in BBC Newsreader Huw Edwards?!
One of topics that Huw touched on was the industry’s efforts at self-promotion. There are some notable exceptions, but in the main we are not very good at promoting the great things that we do for the travelling public.
So my challenge to you all is to make contact with your local media outlets. Tell your local newspaper editors about your business and invite them along to see what you are doing on a daily basis.
Tell them when you have bought a new vehicle or won a new contract. These things all contribute to the local economy. They may be everyday occurrences for us, but it is important for others to appreciate the value of coach and bus operations.
In my experience, once these relationships are forged, they serve you well in the years to come.
Make the case
As an industry we can also do more to promote the ever-improving vehicle standards.
Our vehicles are now cleaner than they have ever been, and new safety features such as lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, adaptive emergency braking and driver fatigue detection are fitted as standard on new vehicles.
The introduction of new air quality measures such as the ULEZ, LEZ and Clean Air Zones will certainly be a challenge for us, and through the CPT the industry will keep up the pressure with Government at all levels to ensure the impacts on our businesses are understood and mitigated.
Many of you will have seen the Times article last week which, despite the rather unfortunate headline, showed that drivers commuting in diesel cars do most most harm to the wellbeing of other travellers and produce six times as much pollution as the average bus passenger.
Those kinds of statistics are always useful to make the case for coach and bus travel, as numerous Greener Journeys reports have shown over the years.
Useful meetings
So back to the life of the President, and since taking up the role I have attended an important meeting with the London Council’s Parking Managers, which I hope will be the start of a useful working relationship that will result in an improved parking environment and better enforcement.
I also have a number of other events and CPT regional dinners in the diary for March, so if you are able to come along, I look forward to meeting you.
