AN EVENING WATCHING FIRST IPSWICH'S FRESH START PROGRAMME UPDATED

As i'm sick in bed at the moment i thought i would repost an earlier post from the last year, as this goes cap in hand with the award of the best customer service from last week, it also an interesting feature that deserves an second outing, as most people would be completely unaware of the process of getting a bus out every morning than back in during the early evening period, unfortunately some of the proposed changes to the depot layout have yet to take place plus an added picture the queue from the Foundation Street entrance.

Yesterday evening i spent two hours in the evening along with Steve W, David Warren and First Business Manager Chris Speed to look at the new programme introduced called fresh start which has been introduced to take vehicle presentation to higher standards than both inside and out current acting supervisor is Paulo Van Krieken who can be seen above illustrating that on a daily basis every part of the bus is cleaned to the highest standard, at this point cleaning the rear exterior panels and the wheel areas where they accumulate dirt. The peak time for buses to return to the depot is between 6pm and 8pm every night, currently buses enter from the rear of the garage in Star Lane were they wait there turn before being refuelled and as shown hand cleaned the parts of the bus that the bus wash can't reach, they are then driven through the bus wash by a shunter before being turned around and coming through only what can be called a very narrow lane in the running shed where health and safety becomes paramount, it's worth remarking that when the garage is upgraded during the year this will change so that the buses will enter from the front of Star Lane and be driven through the back of the depot thus overcoming the problem. The buses are than driven by the shunter back to the rear of the depot where they put into position ready for the next day, over night once all the buses have returned they are than cleaned internally, areas that are important are the cab areas, seating and floors, this programme was started on the 8th January you can tell by the way that the staff go about there business there is that they are all aware of the importance of having buses that they can be proud of, it was noting that the drivers have the utmost respect for Chris Speed, many years ago First could have quite easily turned around and closed Ipswich and the complete difference now in terms of the high quality presentation of the buses and the staff themselves is a credit to the company.

A view from the rear once again Paulo is reaching up to clean the top deck of 32487 where an accumulation of dirt needs to be cleaned.

Volvo B7RLE 66981 KX05 MHK being driven back through the running shed.

A not so easy night shot of sisters 66980/66981 KX05MHJ/K in the rear yard.

69010 AU05 DMY after finishing it's day is shown waiting it's turn to be driven in to be cleaned and driven through the wash.

Mr Speed shows as all how it should be done on the rear of Volvo B7RLE 69423.

Lastly my thanks to Paulo for inviting me along to watch the whole process of how a bus is maintained on a daily basis no doubt i have missed something along the way but when you hear so much it's not possible to remember it all there is also other things that i have learned but that that's all for another day.