Author: Harminder Sangha

Changes to BSOG claims processes

11 August 2021 – Following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the Department for Transport made a commitment that BSOG would continue to be paid to operators at pre-Covid levels for as long as CBSSG payments were being made.

With the CBSSG scheme due to end on 31 August 2021, the Department have now written to operators to advise that following this date they will need to adhere to the pre-Covid BSOG scheme rules.

In effect:

  • Certified claims – all PSV311 submissions should include actual data from 1 September – this will apply to both the eligible kilometres and fuel consumption sections of the certified claim form.

For EPM clients we will advise on the presentation of the PSV311 in advance of your certification audit.

  • Estimate claims – for estimate claims submitted from 1 September, the data should be based on the operations that are expected to be run over the forthcoming year and not pre-Covid operations, as has been the case whilst CBSSG has been paid. For those operators that have already submitted estimate claims prior to this date, they will continue to receive payments on account as previously advised by the Department.

Users of the EPM Traffic system can continue to utilise the estimate function to prepare your BSOG estimate using the current schedule. Where EPM process the estimate on your behalf, we will take into account this guidance.

  • School services – where operators amended registrations from ‘normal stopping’ to ‘school or works’ to comply with social distancing requirements during the pandemic, they were able to continue to claim BSOG. However, this dispensation ceases from 1 September. To receive BSOG for these services going forward, they will need to be registered as ‘normal stopping’. The Department recognise that there is not much time to effect these changes, so they will accept evidence that operators have request a change in the registration particulars in advance of 1 September.

Operators should review all registrations and advise the Traffic Area Office of those which are no longer required to be operated as ‘schools or works’. All correspondence should be kept in case evidence is required for the Department when processing your claim.

EPM are the leading experts in the certification of BSOG claims, ensuring that all claims are accurate, compliant and maximised. If you would like to discuss how we can help you with your claim, then get in touch for a free consultation.

Read the full announcement: DfT BSOG guidance

Take the hassle out of claiming

We ensure that your BSOG claim is accurate, compliant and maximised

Employee Spotlight – Jon Anton, Consulting Director

In this month’s employee spotlight we sit down with Consulting Director, Jon Anton who has worked for EPM for 13 years; maximising operators’ concessionary fares reimbursement, as well as analysing the performance of networks and identifying areas for improvement.

Name three words you would use to describe your role

Varied, thought-provoking, challenging.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I would have to say the variety. Concessionary fares consultancy has a mix of desk based analysis, client engagement and negotiations with third parties, whether that’s Local Transport Authorities or their consultants. Then there’s the operational audit work, it does share some similarities to the consultancy work but for the most part requires a completely different mind-set.

What is your biggest achievement to date?

Personally, securing my ACCA Practising Certificate. It took some time to achieve it, but without it I wouldn’t be in the role I am today.

Professionally, it was demonstrating the value EPM could offer to one of the large bus operators in the UK in respect of their concessionary fares reimbursement. Following some proof of concepts that yielded double-digit percentage increases in reimbursement, we secured a contract to review reimbursement for the whole group – and have continued to do so since.

Are you working on any interesting projects at the moment?

One of the most interesting is an internal project to migrate our accounting to a new solution. We kicked off with EPM at the end of 2020 and then more recently we have brought across Omnibus into the same solution. There was a steep learning curve for me, however we’re already starting to see the benefits of the new solution and there’s still more to come.

What’s your favourite thing to do on the weekends?

Going for a long walk across the fields with my dogs, a whippet and a greyhound. They would much rather tear around the garden than walk though!

If you could get a new skill in 10 minutes, what would it be?

To be able to speak another language; maybe Spanish, German or French.

What’s an interesting fact about you?

Despite my answer to the previous question, at the age of 4 I was able to converse in French. My dad was on a work exchange placement in Montreal, I went to a French-speaking pre-school whilst we were there. Sadly I didn’t hold on to that skill, nor did it come back to me in my mid-teens when I was studying French GCSE!

Do you have a favourite film?
Home Alone. It’s far from the best film ever made, but it’s one that I can’t help but watch at least once a year!

What music are you listening to at the moment?

I’ve been listening to lots from the ‘90s and ‘00s recently – bands like Oasis, Stereophonics & Foo Fighters.

What three items would you take with you to a deserted island?

Can I have items that will help me get back to civilisation, after a short break of course? No? Then a book, probably something by Bill Bryson, a large bottle of whisky and some sun cream!

How do you think the bus industry will change in the next 10 years?

I’ll echo the thoughts of my colleagues; integrated transport networks will be prevalent across the country. Multi-operator ticketing will play a key part in this, so we’ll see these schemes becoming increasingly prominent.

What’s the best advice you can give to someone who’s just started their career?

Take every opportunity that presents itself to broaden your skills and experience. Also, don’t be afraid to ask questions – you’re not expected to know everything!

Read last month’s Employee Spotlight with Software Director, Nick Brookes.

Experts in Transport Management

Job vacancies – Account Executives

Join our journey!

Driven by successful growth, we’re looking for people to join our Business Development team.

Do you want to work within a fast growing and ambitious organisation, alongside great people with a positive team culture, helping  customers as they search for the best solution for their needs?  If so, these roles could be perfect for you!

Roles: Account Executive and Senior Account Executives

We are looking for an Account Executive and a Senior Account Executive to support our on-going business growth.  These are new roles focussed on both the management of existing customer accounts along with the acquisition of new customers.  You will play a vital role securing existing contracts and developing new sales, helping to build revenue and achieve targets.

To be successful you will have a balance of great customer relationship skills, a determination to succeed, an understanding of the passenger transport marketplace (ideally within the bus sector),  and a successful track record in a sales or customer relationship role.

About us

We are an ambitious, fast moving software business serving the passenger transport marketplace and are growing both organically and through acquisitions. Although UK centric, we are also growing internationally with a footprint in mainland Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, Australia and New Zealand.  Established over 30 years, we have a large base of long standing customers including blue chip multi-nationals, public sector organisations, mid-market operators and small growing businesses.

In addition to our well established market leading solutions for public transport operators, we are continually developing and launching new products to help customers address the challenges presented by a constantly changing landscape.

In particular, the National Bus Strategy launched early in 2021 by the UK Government, backed by billions of pounds of funding, presents significant opportunities and challenges for the bus sector.  We have reacted quickly to evolve our existing products and develop new functionality to ensure our customers are fully equipped for the future.

Our people are the heart of our business and we have a genuinely people centric culture and team ethos.  All team members have clear objectives and are supported to achieve their best.  Personal development is positively encouraged and we recognise and reward individual achievements.

Both the Account Executive and Senior Account Executive roles come with a great package of strong basic salary, uncapped commission and attractive benefits including pension scheme and private health insurance.

Responsibilities of the roles

Both roles cover the following core responsibilities.

  • Manage relationships with all contacts within designated existing customer accounts to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction, ensuring they are gaining maximum value from our products and services, feeding back any issues into the business and driving through resolutions
  • Manage contract renewals with designated existing customers to secure renewals
  • Develop our presence within designated existing customer accounts, growing our contact network, building our understanding of their business challenges, identify new sales opportunities and growing revenue
  • Follow up new business enquiries generated from marketing activity or through personal contacts
  • Utilise our product and industry specialists in a pre-sales support capacity to identify the best solutions for customers
  • Own and develop a pipeline of sales opportunities, working with the marketing team to ensure the pipeline is sufficiently strong to meet sales targets
  • Identify, own, manage and win sales opportunities with both existing and new customers
  • Achieve sales targets for renewals, revenue growth and new business

Requirements for the roles

Account Executive – working with independent / mid-market bus operators and municipal bus companies

  • Knowledge of the public transport environment
  • Understanding of transport planning, scheduling and operations (ideally in the bus sector)
  • Experience of customer utilisation of IT systems and business applications (ideally in the bus sector)
  • Customer engagement experience (ideally sales)
  • Track record of successfully building customer relationships
  • Strong communication skills, both written and verbal
  • Problem solving or solution planning experience
  • Confidence in delivering presentations, demonstrating solutions and writing proposals
  • Strong planning and organisation skills

Senior Account Executive – working with multi-national organisations, PLC businesses and larger groups of bus operators

  • Proven track record managing large, strategically important customer accounts
  • Understanding of complex customer organisations, with multi-level and cross functional engagement
  • Ability to develop strong personal relationships with C-suite level contacts
  • Track record of developing new business within key accounts, identifying or creating sales opportunities
  • Demonstrable ability to execute value based sales campaigns
  • Knowledge of the public transport environment and an understanding of the IT systems used for transport planning, scheduling and operations in the bus sector
  • Strong communication skills, both written and verbal
  • Problem solving or solution planning experience
  • Confidence in delivering presentations, demonstrating solutions and writing proposals
  • Strong planning and organisation skills

TO APPLY

If you think this could be right for you contact Gary Hyman, our Business Development Director, for more details: gary.hyman@epm-bus.com

Government to decarbonise all modes of domestic transport by 2050

bus driving through nice landscape
bus driving through nice landscape

14 July 2021 – The plan provides a world-leading ‘greenprint’ to cut emissions from our seas and skies, roads and railways, setting out a pathway for the whole transport sector to reach net zero by 2050.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said “Transport is not just how you get around. It is something that fundamentally shapes our towns, cities and countryside, our living standards and our health. It can shape all those things for good or for bad. Decarbonisation is not just some technocratic process. It’s about how we make sure that transport shapes quality of life and the economy in ways that are good.”

Starting with buses outside London, we want simpler, cheaper, often flat fares that you can pay with a contactless card, with daily and weekly price capping across operators. We must make buses and trains better value and more competitively priced.

Zero emission buses and coaches commitments made in the plan:

  • To deliver the National Bus Strategy’s vision of a transformed bus industry and a green bus revolution
  • Consult on modernising the Bus Service Operators’ Grant in 2021
  • Support delivery of 4,000 new zero emission buses and the infrastructure needed to support them
  • Deliver the first all Electric Bus Town or City
  • Consult on a phase out date for the sale of new non-zero emission buses
  • Consult on a phase out date for the sale of new non-zero emission coaches

Read the full announcement:  Government publishes world’s first ‘greenprint’ to decarbonise all modes of domestic transport by 2050

Read the report: Decarbonising transport: a better, greener Britain

Powering the future of your bus operations

Grow patronage, boost revenue, and drive operational efficiency.

£226 million package to support vital bus services

07 July 2021 – Bus operators across the country will benefit from £226.5 million in government funding to help ensure they continue to run vital services as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.

The funding will run from September 2021 to April 2022 and will support operators across England, outside of London, cementing the government’s commitment to level up transport links as passenger numbers begin to return to pre-pandemic levels.

The scheme is part of the government’s drive to build back better and greener from the pandemic, as the UK prepares to host COP26 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

Roads Minister Baroness Vere said:”The recovery funding will ensure vital services continue to run by supporting operators in those initial months, as restrictions are lifted and passengers begin to return in higher numbers.”

Read the full announcement – £226 million package to support vital bus services

Powering the future of your bus operations

Grow patronage, boost revenue, and drive operational efficiency.

VIDEO: Route profitability made easy with Insights

Insights software route profitability

As we start to emerge from the Covid pandemic, public confidence will lead to higher levels of patronage and government financial support will start to be phased out.  This means operators need REAL-TIME management information to rebuild revenues and reshape the network around customer demand in order to re-establish profitability.

Automated. Seamless. Dynamic.

Route profitability made easy.

Getting visibility of route profitability can be a very time-consuming and resource intensive process as there can be many data points to analyse, held in several systems across the organisation, and it can easily become outdated as new information gets fed into the system.

Our Insights software automatically consolidates data across multiple sources of the business, delivering a 360-degree view of your bus operations – supporting you to improve network performance.

In just a few clicks you can easily find out the routes that are performing well and those that are not contributing to the business – watch the video to see how easy it is….

Powering the future of your bus operations

Grow patronage, boost revenue, and drive operational efficiency.

Employee Spotlight – Nick Brookes, Software Director

In this month’s ’employee spotlight’ we sit down with Software Director, Nick Brookes who has worked for EPM for 20 years.

Undertaking a range of roles from BSOG auditor to concessionary fares consultant, Nick uses his wealth of bus industry knowledge to help shape products and services; staying at the forefront of passenger transport technology.

What three words would you use to describe your role?

Challenging, fast-paced and interesting.

What does a typical day look like for you?

My days are typically spent talking to customers about our products to identify new requirements and ways that we can add value for our clients. I also work closely with our Product Owner and CTO around the development programme and our Service Delivery Manager.

What is something most people don’t know about you?

I have a black belt in karate – well I did when I was 13 anyway!

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

Probably Australia – I like the good weather, but my foreign language skills are not up to much!

What is the one thing you can’t live without?

Friends – I think we have all missed the opportunity to go for a beer with friends in recent months.

Do you have a favourite book?

Probably more of a guilty pleasure but I always read a John Grisham book when I am on holiday!

What music are you listening to at the moment?

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

Do you have any hobbies?

I like going to the gym and running. Not so much my hobbies but my children are both very active, so I enjoy watching them take on a range of activities from the side-lines as well.

If you could get a new skill in 10 minutes, what would it be?

My son plays the guitar, which looks pretty cool – fortunately for him he has inherited his mother’s musicality not mine, which is non-existent.

Given a chance, who would you like to be for a day?

I recently watched the Last Dance and played lots of basketball when I was younger – so maybe Michael Jordon at his peak or any professional athlete just to experience what it would be like to be that good for a day!

How do you think the industry will change in 10 years?

The vast majority of vehicles will be zero emission as the investment that our clients have started making in alternative fuel vehicles continues. Autonomous vehicles will still be a little way off, but integrated transport networks in major towns and cities will be the norm.

What advice would you give to someone who’s just started their career?

Work hard and take on the responsibility as it is offered to you and be prepared to learn from both your successes and failures!

Read last month’s Employee Spotlight with BSOG Manager, Sarah Bayliss

Experts in Transport Management

Navigating through the challenges of the National Bus Strategy

The National Bus Strategy (NBS) sets out an ambitious vision to revolutionise the way in which local bus services are provided, which is presenting many new challenges for transport authorities.

We appreciate that it’s a difficult and uncertain time, which is why we’re committed to helping transport authorities improve the effectiveness of their organisations and the success of their bus networks to meet these challenges.

Experience working with PTEs and local authorities
With over 30 years’ experience in software and consultancy services, we have a comprehensive knowledge of the bus industry and work with five of the six PTEs in England and a range of local authorities to streamline their business processes.

Contract Management Solution
Our software enables all tenders to be specified and monitored to ensure that they are operated in line with the authority’s contracts. This ensures that operators are not overpaid and demonstrates good stewardship of public funds, whilst reducing the time spent administering and keeping track of performance.

On-demand performance management reports
You can also generate measurable KPIs, such as those required for Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs) and use our new Insights platform to analyse data and make key decisions on the network based on cost effectiveness. The solutions can also be used to administer multi-operator ticketing schemes, which are a key theme of the NBS.

If you’re interested in getting faster reporting on key areas like revenue, patronage, and costs, we have the systems, data, and expertise to help. To book a free consultation to see how we can assist with your challenges and requirements, complete the online form or call 01527 556940.

Empowering you with new levels of control and visibility over the bus networks servicing your communities

Bus Service Improvement Plan guidance follows NBS

empty bus seats
empty bus seats

17 May 2021, Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) guidance document has been published, part of the National Bus Strategy, by the Government.

BSIP submissions will need to set out a high-level vision and key interventions to deliver it, with the overarching aim will be to grow patronage.

The timetable for Local Transport Authorities to submit a BSIP :

  • 30 June: Decide whether to pursue Enhanced Partnership (EP) or develop a franchising assessment
  • 31 October: Publish a BSIP
  • 31 March 2022: Have either an EP in place or be following the statutory process to develop a franchising assessment

Access to a share of the £3bn to be provided by the Government for buses required these deadlines to be met.

 

Download the National bus strategy: bus service improvement plans – guidance to local authorities and bus operators

Read the full Government announcement on the £3 billion bus revolution

Download the Bus Back Better: national bus strategy for England

Powering the future of your bus operations

Grow patronage, boost revenue, and drive operational efficiency.

EPM and Omnibus to exhibit at ITT Hub 2021

Join EPM and Omnibus on 30th June and 1st July at ITT Hub 2021 – a new industry event which supports the government’s decarbonisation of transport plan – taking place at the Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre.

Exhibiting the best in road-transport innovation and technology for fleet operators, planners, and policy makers; ITT Hub combines an indoor exhibition, outdoor interactive display, and demonstration space with a high-profile Future Logistics Conference.

Visit us on stand A33 and speak to EPM’s Software Director, Nick Brookes and Product Manager, Mark Jones; Omnibus’ Managing Director, Peter Crichton and Technical Account Manager, Kieran Proctor on the latest passenger transport software to increase commercial, financial, and operational performance; from scheduling, to staff rostering, depot allocation and timetabling.

Visit the website: ITT Hub 2021

Address:

Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre
Etps Rd, Farnborough
GU14 6FD

ITT Hub 2021

30 June – 1st July
Farnborough International Conference & Exhibition Centre