Strong words aimed at making the industry sit up and take notice were a central feature of this year’s CPT annual dinner
Take 540 operators and suppliers, the Lancaster Gate Hotel in London, add an after dinner speaker, jolly good networking and keynote speeches, and you have the recipe for the 2017 Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) Annual Dinner.
Traditionally held the day that the trade body’s new President is elected for a one-year term, his first duty is to deliver a ‘state-of-the-nation’ speech.
It’s normally also a response to the Secretary of State, who appears on stage first, but this year Chris Grayling’s comments gave by a pre-recorded video, in which he thanked the industry, saying: “I am deeply grateful for the industry’s response to our call to help rail passengers left stranded by strikes.
“We’ve received offers of help from as far away as Cornwall and Northumberland – and many places in between.
“CPT members have allowed thousands of people to get where they need to go, and back home again.
“It’s a reminder that while other transport modes might generate more headlines, the bus and coach industry can be depended on to get the job done.”
London coaching
But it was the inclusion of Transport for London MD Surface Transport Leon Daniels as an additional speaker that added extra spice. He started by saying a few words about coaching in London.
“I am not surprised if operators here tonight feel that they have been forgotten. They have suffered worsened traffic congestion, being evicted from traditional parking and loading locations, and been stuck with the extra costs which come with tougher requirements. I am truly sorry if operators have felt they are somehow not loved.”
He praised the lobbying that CPT has done, and outlined progress on creating more parking space adding “its work is paying dividends and there is more to come.”
He added: “It must be the case that we can make more carriageway space available for loading and unloading as a minimum, and rest periods if possible, on sections of highway which are against the flow of traffic.
“Technology now offers us a great opportunity to provide discrete places for coaches to stop, at particular time of the day and week, appropriate to the immediate area, and where drivers or operators book that space on-line, and indeed can be used to enforce it as well.
“I am determined that we develop this over the next year or two to increase kerbside space available to you.
“I have also asked my team to look again at what we can do for setting down and picking up for theatres in London where there is presently an almighty scrum between taxis, private hire, coaches, private cars and rickshaws.
“We need to provide a better solution for all forms of legitimate and licensed public transport and deal with the others.”
Advice to managers
He offered “a piece of personal advice especially to our new generation of bus managers.
“While you are all arguing about the edges of competition law, the merits of franchising, how to deploy smart ticketing, Section 19, the fairness of concessionary fares reimbursement, a tsunami of disruptive technology is sweeping across the world.
“Personal mobility, the optimisation of networks harnessing spare capacity and using smartphone technology, underpinned by powerful and convenient international payment platforms are your biggest threat.
“Add to the public’s fast growing love affair with door-to-door travel any time of the day or night the prospect of autonomous vehicles where the cost of the driver is now subtracted from the cost base, and the domestic debate about what are presently considered important issues to the bus and coach sector will pale into insignificance.
“Cheap, shared ride, door to door services have the ability to decimate rural bus services, off-peak and evening urban services, services for tourists, in such a way that even the cost base for your peak-hour mass transit critical business could be made worse.
“Zero emission, demand responsive, small vehicles may blur forever the distinction between buses and taxi and private hire vehicles, and will arrive here and elsewhere far faster than any regulation or legislation can possibly cope with.
“I urge the industry, especially those with much of their careers still to come, to lift up your heads, look over the immediate areas of debate, look to the future and prepare for a revolution in how people organise, pay and take their travel and ensure they make all this an opportunity for the industry…. not the terminal decline of an one which has so much to offer.”
- For more about the CPT’s role and work visit www.cpt-uk.org
