We work to keep everyone safe and make travel accessible for everyone.
Safety always comes first here at Transdev – in everything we do, and everything we plan.
It’s why we hold a globally recognised benchmark for safety. We’re recognised by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) with its standard mark ISO45001.
This covers risk control and hazard assessment to reduce illness, accidents and injuries at work. Holding ISO45001 demonstrates our clear commitment to health, safety and wellbeing to colleagues and external stakeholders.
Everything we do follows our Transdev Safety First principles – our ‘golden rules’ which clearly set out fundamental, non-negotiable principles, whatever our role in our company, to guide our behaviours and decision making.
Our Safety First principles cover the following five areas:
- Operational Responsibility – to ensure colleagues, customers and communities work, live and travel safely every day, from our depots and offices to the streets.
- Health and Wellbeing – coming to work well rested and taking care of health (own and colleagues) to ensure physical, mental and social wellbeing.
- Zero Alcohol and Drugs – never working while under the influence of alcohol, drugs or substances.
- Focus and Awareness – staying completely focused on the task while remaining fully alert to the surrounding environment.
- Speaking Up – when seeing any potentially risky situation or behaviours.
We also hold Safety Week events to promote safe working and travel for employees and customers.
Key elements of Transdev’s Safety Week include:
- Focus on areas where safety matters – including passenger, road and occupational safety.
- Leading the way – through seminars across our businesses in the UK and beyond, to share best practice, discuss performance and promote a safety-first culture at work.
- External participation – taking part in externally-led safety events to share our expertise.
- Part of broader campaigns – we celebrate events such as European Mobility Week in September, focusing on safety, accessibility and sustainability.
- Motivation and engagement – as the heartbeat of our organisation across the North of England, together we make a positive difference each day in keeping ourselves and our customers safe.
As well as holding the ISO standard mark ISO45001 for safety – and consistently maintaining the high standards it demands – we have also been awarded two further standard marks:
ISO9001 for Quality recognises efficient working and reducing waste, and is based on a plan-do-check-act process leading to recording and reviewing procedures, structure and responsibilities.
ISO14001 for Sustainability is an international standard that sets out an effective environmental management system. This underpins our process to cut waste and follow sustainable business practice.
Our focus on safety extends to every journey, every day.
GreenRoad, our on-bus telematics system which records our performance on every journey, helps our teams to achieve top marks for safe and smooth driving.
The latest data from GreenRoad shows that all ten of our driving teams across Yorkshire and Lancashire are achieving excellent safety scores – a huge credit to the skill and dedication of our colleagues behind the wheel.
With GreenRoad, the lower the score, the better the result. A score of 20 or below is considered safe, comfortable and fuel efficient, while 21 to 49 is ranked as average and 50 or above is considered an uncomfortable customer experience with high fuel usage.
In 2025, all of our driving teams recorded a Greenroad safety rating of 17 or less, with the best performing team achieving a score of just 7.
The benefits of achieving a safety score of 20 or below include:
- a more comfortable ride for our customers
- better fuel economy
- much less wear and tear on our buses
- a lower risk of accidents with a corresponding reduction in more serious incidents on the road
- less impact on the environment from every journey we make
With a varied fleet of double and single deck vehicles, making sure our drivers know safe routes for the vehicle they’re driving – and where potential hazards lie ahead – is vital to ensuring safety on the road.
Bridge strikes put the safety of our customers, drivers and other road users at risk – and can cause train delays and cancellations, as the structural integrity of any rail bridge involved in such incidents has to be checked by Network Rail engineers before services can resume.
Through our Ticketer electronic ticket retail systems, we receive Road Restriction Alerts (RRAs) covering routes with restricted access due to height and width constraints, navigational restrictions, and temporary measures such as road closures due to carriageway works or adverse weather conditions.
Messages are conveyed through a digital Ticketer Portal, which allows us to choose from a series of navigation restrictions, such as “no left/right turn”, as well as fully customised hazard warnings, e.g. “flooded road, drive carefully”.
The electronic ticket machine (ETM) on each bus can then detect when the vehicle is approaching any restricted roads and warn the driver via an audible announcement and visual alert on the ETM’s screen.
Measures governing vehicle height and width can also be programmed into the Ticketer Portal, using the Highways Agency’s latest dataset of UK road restrictions, together with dimensions of every bus in our fleet.
We also ensure our managers are fully equipped to spot safety hazards before they can cause accidents with expert training supported by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) – the world’s largest chartered Health and Safety organisation, based in Britain with over 46,000 members across 130 countries.
The IOSH Managing Safely course is a market-leading qualification for those with responsibility for the safety of others. This training is designed to give managers and supervisors the necessary skills to manage health and safety.
All of Transdev’s directors are IOSH accredited, demonstrating our commitment at every level of our business to receiving relevant safety related training – skills which are passed throughout our organisation.
Safety is built into our new generation of electric vehicles at the design stage. Our battery-electric Mercedes-Benz eCitaro single deck buses are equipped with extensive safety systems including Preventive Brake Assist, which warns drivers of impending collisions with pedestrians, cyclists and other objects; high resolution MirrorCams which replace traditional exterior mirrors to improve the driver’s field of vision and eliminate blind spots; and Sideguard Assist, which warn of, and help avoid, collisions.
The eCitaro vehicles also have Electronic Safety Programme (ESP) which helps maintain control of the bus in critical situations, alongside a range of passive safety features including a robust frame, reinforced side walls and rollover protection.
We believe it’s never too soon to learn how to use the bus safely – that’s why we organise safe travel training for groups of school children.
Our positive experience with educational visits has shown that it’s never too soon to get younger children engaged with catching the bus and travelling safely, as that often leads to them becoming regular customers with us – and for some, choosing a career in the bus industry when they’re ready.
We also encourage today’s youngsters to become tomorrow’s regular bus users through our special Bright Sparks club, especially for children who travel on The 36 electric buses between Ripon, Harrogate and Leeds.
Bright Sparks is free to join, and every child who signs up receives their very own Bright Sparks Club bus pass – scan it when boarding the bus to receive a free puzzle for the journey (don’t forget to bring along a pencil!), and a free Bright Sparks activity book, full of fascinating facts.
Find out more about Bright Sparks here: https://www.transdevbus.co.uk/brightsparks
Everyone who remembers going on a school trip knows they can be a great way to bring learning to life – while having the most amazing time!
Here at Transdev, we’re experts in organising transport for educational trips involving school and college groups of all ages and sizes. With access to buses based at nine operating centres across Yorkshire and Lancashire, let us take the stress out of arranging school transport for events and excursions.
Our experienced team have the skill and experience to make it a journey to remember for all the right reasons – get in touch with us by email: [email protected] or give our customer service team a call to discuss your requirements on 01422 553 576.
At Transdev, we’re here to get you there – in safety and comfort, while offering you unbeatable value for money.
Our customer service values are at the heart of our organisation – that means we place you front and centre in all that we do.
Our dedicated Customer Service Centre is based at Elland in West Yorkshire where our experienced team look after customers across our entire network from central Lancashire to the North Yorkshire Coast.
We think traditional ways to share information with you, our customers, still have an important place alongside today’s digital technologies. As well as our website, app and social media presence, we also produce printed guides for each service, available on buses and at bus stations – and we produce printed versions of our colourful Days Out guides for Yorkshire and Lancashire.
We also believe authentic and proudly local people are the true face of our community. That’s why our customers appear on the back of our electric buses in Harrogate – with local residents of all ages, team members from the Fat Badger pub, Mama Doreen’s Cafe and David Lloyd Fitness Club, and players from Harrogate Town AFC as the stars of our show.
Our newest buses offer the best in easy-access comfort and safety for our customers with special travel needs – but don’t just take it from us.
When we unveiled the first of our new generation, zero emission electric twin-deck buses for The 36 in summer 2024, among the first to get on board was Yorkshire disability rights campaigner Flick Williams.
After trying the twin wheelchair spaces, Flick commented: “I think it’s fabulous – lots of families with two wheelchair users can now travel together on the same bus, while the colour contrasted flooring will help visually impaired people to find their seat.
“This bus company is showing that it takes accessibility seriously with these amazing new buses, and in how well it trains its drivers. I can honestly say I’ve never experienced an issue with a Transdev bus driver.”
In creating the award-winning specification for our electric buses, we teamed up with campaign group Disability Action Yorkshire to deliver a more inclusive journey experience for customers with specific travel needs.
In the Harrogate area, we work with Henshaws College, which caters for young people between the ages of 16 and 25 with special educational needs and disabilities. Together we’ve organised visits to our depot for training sessions offering practice in boarding a bus, buying a ticket, travelling and alighting safely at the end of a journey.
We also support specialist education providers with free travel, including special needs children from Springwater School in Harrogate, plus students from Henshaws College and local independent schools.
As well as designated spaces for wheelchairs and trolleys, we’ve installed hearing loops to all of our new buses, and to many of our existing vehicles in Yorkshire and Lancashire.
Hearing loops enable users to hear sound sources directly by cutting out background noise – with proven benefits for people with a hearing disability. Bringing them to more of our buses is all part of our ongoing commitment to make our buses more accessible for all our customers.
But we’re not stopping there.
Our new buses are designed with accessibility built in as standard – often going above and beyond statutory requirements, as we want to make going by bus with us a pleasure for everyone, no matter what their travel needs may be.
Wide and low-level entrances, high visibility flooring and lighting and full colour LED audio-visual screens deliver up-to-the-minute information throughout the journey, including live connection informationcovering other key bus routes and rail services too.
It’s all part of our mission - to make travel easier, simpler and safer for all our customers. We look forward to welcoming you on board soon.
