Rail replacement is shedding an image of being one of the less-desirable work streams. Abellio is heavily involved in the sector and it is committed to growing its presence in the market even further
Rail replacement remains a divisive topic for some, but as parties involved with supplying operators with the work have upped their game, it has become more palatable. Abellio Rail Replacement (ARR) hopes that it can continue that upward trajectory via partnership.
In its case, ARR is involved in a three-party relationship. Although it is part of the same Dutch government-owned company that holds a number of UK rail franchises, ARR is a stand-alone supplier to them.
It is also a supplier to PSV operators, meaning that keeping everyone involved happy is imperative for its own success.
ARR was established around four years ago. It has a ‘spread’ of pre-planned and emergency work across a chunk of the country, including in East Anglia and Essex, though a swathe of England encompassing London to the North Midlands, and throughout Scotland. It is looking to add to the 800 operators it has signed up since establishment.
Why couple up?
In 2014, Business Support Manager Paul O’Bentley chose a simple way to identify the operators that were engaged in rail replacement. He went to a pre-planned job one and observed the coaches that were coming and going.
Coupled with desktop research, he then hit the road. There was a degree of kickback from some operators he met. They viewed rail replacement as having an element of undesirability. ARR thus designed its package to address those concerns.
“Our payment terms are 15 days from date of invoice,” Paul explains. ARR consistently pays 90% of invoices within that time. Those that it does not are completed incorrectly or post-dated. To simplify many processes, ARR has an online portal. It tells operators what duties will entail and what they will pay, although where an additional movement is required at short notice, there is naturally an adjustment.
Some operators are capable of their own auto-invoicing, but ARR has made the facility available via its portal to those that would otherwise be unable to benefit from it.
The portal is heavily relevant to pre-planned work. From an operator’s point of view, it also includes everything from drivers’ duty details to windscreen destination stickers and other things besides; fleet data can be uploaded along with drivers’ names and vehicle allocations. Drivers, meanwhile, can use an app that gives them information on where the stop at a particular station is. It also shows their duty boards.
Human intervention
Although much about the ARR model is automated and reliant on technology, it still involves a significant amount of human input.
Each rail replacement contract has a manager, and they are located within the train operating company (TOC) control room.
“That is where our business model differs from some others,” says Director of ARR and Event Connect Ian Jeffrey. “The majority of allocation is done by a single point of contact in each region. That helps with building relationships.”
Familiarity also assists with the fair allocation of standby duties. They can be lucrative, and in extreme cases can involve being paid for covering at most very little mileage.
They are given out on an equitable basis, and ARR also subscribes to a position of fair allocation of other work where operators have helped it at short notice, and/or performed well.
Human contact is also key when operators come on board with ARR. The initial forms are on its website, and once they are returned, things progress through a formal process of signing the operator up as a supplier. Besides an audit of O-Licence, insurance and other compliance-related items, one of ARR’s engineering managers visits the operator’s premises.
A fair day’s pay…
“We want to work with operators but we must also be a responsible supplier,” says Paul. That extends to not overcharging TOCs. Both Ian and Paul acknowledge that, during high summer, operators may be able to earn slightly more elsewhere, although ARR has increased what it pays and believes that its rates are fair for the work involved.
But they point out that those other jobs will not be around outside peak season, whereas rail replacement will be. They know that because the rail industry starts planning around two years ahead of major projects. Although it is not until much later that it is able to finalise road transport requirements, the long lead times give a good indication of what will be needed.
As a result, and in combination with high levels of railway investment, ARR is confident that there will be much work to be had in the future. That is particularly the case in Scotland, but lots is also in the planning stages elsewhere.
That is one of the reasons why it is seeking operators to join its roster. “Some other providers use a close-knit group to cover the ‘golden goose’ of pre-planned work, and they then struggle to find any who will turn out in an emergency at 0300hrs,” says Paul.
“What has pleased me as we have grown is an element of advocacy. We have seen operators call us and say that they have spoken to other coach companies, who have advised them to sign up.”
All shapes and sizes
While much demand is for 53- and 57-seat coaches, ARR can offer work for many other types of PCV, including buses, minicoaches and accessible vehicles.
In a major part of England, ARR was faced with having to significantly increase the number of operators on its books when parent Abellio won the West Midlands Trains franchise.
Between the award date in summer 2017 and mobilisation in December of that year, it grew its database of operator partners in the region from 40 to 100. That number now stands at 150. Ian believes that is because operators are cognisant of ARR’s mission to pay fairly and quickly, and its commitment to an even allocation of work.
“If we don’t feed a wide range of stakeholders with pre-planned work, they are not going to help us in an emergency,” adds Paul. That policy delivers for both operators and TOCs. ARR’s response times, which are one of the ways in which a TOC measures its performance, are good, despite it not paying a ‘golden hour’ incentive to operators who arrive within a predetermined time.
Big and small
The typical operator that is signed up with ARR has between five and 10 vehicles, but there are others outside that range. It provides work for owner-drivers, and also for some of the ‘big five’ bus operators.
Besides rail replacement duties, Abellio is developing its Event Connect business to provide managed travel services where larger movements of people are required, such as to conferences or corporate occasions or involving incoming cruise ships.
Although Event Connect is not on a scale that compares with ARR, it is growing. Ian clarifies that it is not concerned with one-off private hires. Event Connect work is offered to operators who have performed well on rail replacement, but Abellio is also willing to sign up partners that are not based in areas that fall within its rail franchises.
While the volume of work will not be huge in those instances, Event Connect has ambitious targets and it has already seen rapid growth.
More innovation coming
ARR says that it has done several things to make operators’ lives easier since its rail replacement business got underway. Payment, both in terms of rates and the time taken to settle, is key to that. Fairness of work allocation is another aspect.
“We spent lots of time working on the operator portal. We’re also working on live tracking, whether that is through ‘borrowing’ a telematics data feed when the vehicle is working for us, or via other means,” says Paul.
After that, attention may turn to what else can be done with vehicles, bearing in mind the impending arrival of low emission zones throughout the UK.
Additionally, with hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of new trains on order, thoughts may later encompass how the rail replacement experience can match what that new stock will deliver.
“We had a tweet recently telling us that the sender preferred the rail replacement coach to the train. If the base-level things are being carried out well, we can look at what else we can do. And taking our partner operators along with us is an intrinsic part of that,” concludes Ian.
