Less than half of coach operators are satisfied with England’s network of motorways and major ‘A’ roads, according to the latest results from Transport Focus’s ongoing Logistics and Coach Survey: Strategic Roads survey. Facilities at stopping places and the quality of road surfaces score among the worst when it comes to coach operators’ opinions.
The independent watchdog, which surveyed more than 1000 freight and coach managers as part of the research, says it will use the data to pressure National Highways to make changes.
When it comes to overall satisfaction, 46% of the coach sector is “fairly satisfied” or “very satisfied” with how England’s motorways and major ‘A’ roads were meeting their needs. This is up from the equivalent figure of 44% from 12 months ago. However, contentment overall is generally trending downwards following a value of 52% for fairly or very satisfied for the six months to March 2021.
Based on the 50-99 responses in this survey, 27% is fairly or very dissatisfied overall, with 27% neither dissatisfied nor satisfied.
When coach operators were asked how they rate the surfaces of these roads in terms of not making passengers uncomfortable, only 26% responded they were fairly or very satisfied, with 53% fairly or very dissatisfied.
Among respondents from the coach sector, 42% said the number of stopping places is fairly or very good, with 37% describing it as fairly or very poor. Availability of spaces for vehicles is an issue, with 30% saying this is fairly or very good and 52% complaining it is fairly or very poor. Forty per cent of operators said quality of facilities for drivers is fairly or very poor and 55% used the description for value for money at stopping places.
Coach operators were also asked about various factors affected by incident handling. Among these, the time it usually takes to re-open roads was rated as fairly or very poor by 58% and the extent drivers’ working hours are considered is similarly categorised by 58%.
In the area of advance planning information, 44% of operators said it is fairly or very good for planning routes and 44% said it is fairly or very poor for estimating extra time roadworks will add.
Forty five per cent say real-time information on road lane closures was fairly or very good. However, when it comes to such live information on roads not opening on time after roadworks, 49% answered it was fairly or very poor.
