What is … ‘The Transdev Spirit’?
The Transdev Spirit represents how we work sums together within and across all our teams, to grow our business and look after our people.
It certainly impressed the independent judging panel at the 2022 UK Bus Awards – the Oscars of the nation’s bus industry. They selected The Transdev Spirit for a coveted Gold prize in the closely-contested Culture Change category.
Alan Millar, Chair of the UK Bus Awards, commented: “We’re honoured to recognise and celebrate the UK bus industry’s successes, achievements, innovations, dedication and sheer brilliance, in helping to deliver a first-class experience for customers.”
So that’s what The Transdev Spirit is … what does it set out to achieve?
Its aims are reflected in three simple phrases:
-
We talk
-
We listen
-
We make it happen
And for us, it’s so much more than just words.
The Transdev Spirit brings together our new and enhanced schemes to build and develop our skills base, including The Academy, our network of people development centres, StepUp, our opportunity programme leading to more senior roles; our apprenticeships; and G25 – our in-person gathering of over 40 managers learning more about our business plans, and hearing from senior bus industry figures, local authority leaders and bus manufacturers. G25 also helps our managers to embed The Transdev Spirit within their teams.
At the heart of all our teams are strong inter-personal relationships, along with informal warmth, and supported by award-winning in-house communications channels, including:
Transdev Talk – our in-house monthly magazine, delivered digitally to all our colleagues. Talk turns the spotlight onto our incredible teams and individuals, and features progress updates on key business projects. In the last three years, we’ve increased the frequency of Talk from quarterly to bi-monthly, and again to monthly, to make sure its content is fresh, engaging and up-to-date.
Talk Shop – our programme of visits by our senior leadership team to our operating centres. We listen and exchange information in a relaxed style, to encourage everyone to contribute their personal thoughts and ideas.
Transdev’s award-winning learning and development centres are run as The Academy, the only joined-up training and development brand in the UK bus industry. Our four completely overhauled training centres (in Burnley, Elland, Keighley, and Harrogate) were joined by in 2024 by a fifth facility at our new green depot in York: each featuring dedicated learning buses and the latest interactive learning tools. In 2024, we welcomed 162 new recruits, compared with 42 in all of 2021.
Our drivers are recognised as among the best in the country at delivering outstanding customer service, in the most recent 2024 ‘Your Bus Journey’ survey carried out in 34 urban and rural areas of England outside London by the independent passenger watchdog, Transport Focus.
Transdev’s results show 89% customer satisfaction with our bus drivers, higher than almost all other bus operators in four local authority areas we serve included in the research – West Yorkshire, City of York, Lancashire including Blackburn with Darwen, and Greater Manchester.
In the same Transport Focus survey, Transdev’s customers reported an overall satisfaction rate of 86% - also higher than the national average of 80% and again higher than almost all other bus operators in the areas we serve.
These results reflect our commitment to achieving the highest standards of learning for all our drivers, from the first moment they join us. Throughout their career, our drivers enjoy regularly refreshed training programmes designed to keep their knowledge up to date – essential in our fast-changing industry.
We have 8 driving instructors compared with five as 2021 began. Specialist training for mentors, with our Mentor Development Programme, helps them to support newcomers, while renovated rest areas are benefiting 750 colleagues in Harrogate, Keighley, Elland and Malton.
We can and will go further still together, to serve you even better every day.