Transport Operations - Driving Down Cost, Raising Standards

Last updated 8th February 2011

One of the key actions in Transport Operations is to keep a flexible citywide approach, which means the sharing of resources to keep down cost. Working this idea through day centres and residential units that use transport has been challenging, however Transport Operations are making progress. This means that instead of transport having to hire vehicles externally, they can use any vehicles that are not in service from different day centres. This internal sharing of vehicles has generated cost saving to the council.

Made up of six members of staff, Steve Askey - Senior Transport Operation Officer, Laurence Wright - Fleet Support, Terry Kyte -Taxi Team Leader and Clerical Assistants Pauline Friar, Onika Morgan and managed by Keith Powell, the team organised the movement of 150 vehicles and 1500 service users every day. BEST Leader Steve and the team have been very instrumental in looking at creative ways of using transport, reducing cost and supporting the community.

One way was making better use of transport during the weekends and supporting the work of community organisations. Vehicles are provided to local groups like churches, scouts groups and other organisations that need to transport people to their activities during the weekend. Transport Operations also provide free training required for the organisations to use the vehicles and also have a pool of volunteer drivers that will support organisations that don't have drivers.

The management of vehicles and personnel gives Transport Operations an ideal position to support other services that benefit the council. Examples of these are the supporting of Business Continuity and Emergency Planning. They have a team of 12 volunteer drivers providing an on-call service for any city emergency. In the past they have been called out to the Birmingham Hurricane and Perry Barr floods.

Even though Transport Operations are an Adults & Communities team, they support a wider range of customers from across the council, managing vehicle hire for CYPF social workers, youth offending team, and on special occasions, senior dignitaries.

Transport Operations has also been very active in driving up standards in the service that has helped to reduce accidents and any health and safety issues. In addition to their in depth Midas training, drivers are now been given the opportunity to do an NVQ 2 to build on their knowledge and to develop their career.

Keith Powell, the manager of the team said, "The team culture and focus is meeting the needs of the service users. This is done in a professional manner, providing support and advice and dealing with emergencies appropriately, as an automatic response. I am very proud of this team and on leaving the council know that the excellent work will continue well into the future."

For more information about transport operation services; internal hire/loan, external vehicle hire, advice on transport issues, purchases or taxi bookings contact Steve Askey, Laurence Wright or Terry Kyte on 303 2758.