Stagecoach UK managing director Carla Stockton-Jones told the Young Bus Managers Network about her strategy for the future. Andrew Garnett reports

 
Carla Stockton-Jones joined Stagecoach from Sky in 2020

 
It has been something of a baptism of fire for Carla Stockton-Jones since her appointment as Stagecoach’s UK managing director in October 2020. The 18 months intervening have been some of the most traumatic the sector has ever experienced as it navigated the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, speaking to the Young Bus Managers Network at its recent event in Cardiff, Stockton-Jones said she remains optimistic about the future for the sector.

She began her keynote speech by going back to the past. She confessed that while she may be a newcomer to the industry, her father had been a bus driver with Aldershot & District Traction. While training as a nurse, her mother worked part-time in the cafe at the bus station. “It’s in my blood,” Stockton-Jones added.

She revealed a lot of discussions with her father revolved around the use of technology, or “trendy technology” as she said he called it. While he much preferred the old ways of working, Stockton-Jones said she was convinced by the benefits of moving rapidly to adopt new tech. She pointed to the banking sector and how in 2005 27% of the population banked online. Today it’s around 80%. “That’s a perfect example to me of how technology makes our lives easier,” she said. “Whilst technology is a big change for this industry, what we know is that it adds value. It makes things simple; it makes things simpler for our people.”

“Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a role for banking in branch or banking on the telephone – there is a role for that. But what technology does is that it allows us to serve all of our customers.”

Technology can make life easier. You have to do the right due diligence on those products and you have to understand what you’re going into, but technology is really important for this industry

As a result of that thinking, Stagecoach is pushing ahead with the introduction of new technology platforms that will enhance collaboration between teams and help keep track of other aspects of the business – like assets. “Technology can make life easier,” Stockton-Jones added. “You have to do the right due diligence on those products and you have to understand what you’re going into, but technology is really important for this industry.

Before taking on her present role, Stockton-Jones had spent six months as regional director of Stagecoach’s bus operations in the south of England. She has sales and service experience across a range of sectors, including fast-moving consumer goods, media and technology. Her most recent role was with Sky where she had been director of home service since 2012. She believes her varied CV gives her distinct advantage over public transport lifers.

“I think, personally, working across multiple sectors has given me breadth,” she said. “It’s helped me understand consumers and how consumers tick; it’s helped me work out what turns consumers on, it’s helped me understand how to sell to people. It’s also helped me to understand how to look after people – I’ve never had a role where I haven’t had to look after hundreds or thousands of people.”

Stockton-Jones said this brought home to her the responsibility inherent in those positions and this made her passionate about supporting and making life better for the people who work for Stagecoach. “In turn, I believe that when I make life better for our people at Stagecoach, they make life better for our customers… the customer is at the heart of everything we do.”

I’ve had many people tell me I shouldn’t be in this industry as I’m not from this industry, or that I don’t know enough about this industry, but I’ll tell you what I do know – I do know what makes people tick and I do know how to serve customers really well

Despite her obvious passion, Stockton-Jones hinted there had been discussion in some quarters about her suitability for her current position. “I’ll be really honest, it hasn’t been easy,” she confessed. “I’ve had many people tell me I shouldn’t be in this industry as I’m not from this industry, or that I don’t know enough about this industry, but I’ll tell you what I do know – I do know what makes people tick and I do know how to serve customers really well.”

She also claimed that, in her view, her gender had also played a part in some of that commentary. “The fact that I’m the first woman to run a [multi-modal] public transport business in the UK – I don’t see that as anything special for me,” Stockton-Jones added. “I think it’s a bonus. The industry benefits from having more women, helping to bring more diverse thinking into how we run our organisations and bringing more diverse thinking so we can serve our customers better.”

The huge attraction for me to join the business was the huge sustainability agenda. I believe public transport can get there before anybody else

Much has been made about the green credentials of the bus and Stockton-Jones says she is keen to build on that. “The huge attraction for me to join the business was the huge sustainability agenda,” she said. “I believe public transport can get there before anybody else. If we really put our minds to it, we can get there before any of these big fleets which are out there on our roads chugging out nasty fumes into our air.”

Historically the sector’s main market had been people for whom the bus was their only option. She said this needed to change and the sector needed to attract people who had never considered using the bus before.

“My vision is for a better experience,” she said. “Let’s not be complacent and think they have to use the bus and so the service is what the service is. That’s not right. We have to make the service the very best it can. But how do we attract new people? This for me is back to technology, because technology, change and modernisation are all keys to unlocking new customers to use the bus as a sustainable alternative to their cars. The more we can do to drive people out of cars the better.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m looking at our ticket types and thinking we’ve got to really radically overhaul them if we are to continue to stay current for our customers

Stagecoach celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2020 and Stockton-Jones acknowledged the group had been extremely successful, but she said it was time for a different strategy as people and travel patterns are changing rapidly. “I don’t know about you, but I’m looking at our ticket types and thinking we’ve got to really radically overhaul them if we are to continue to stay current for our customers,” she added. “The pandemic has uprooted everything for us… people are doing things differently; they are living their lives differently.”

Again she emphasised the part technology is playing in this revolution and it was one that was particularly affecting older people, with many turning to internet shopping for their day-to-day needs. She said transport wasn’t immune from this and pointed to new developments like Stagecoach’s busy bus app. “It didn’t take long to develop, did it?” she added. “We only needed a pandemic to make it happen. Let’s hope we keep that urgent momentum going and we continue to develop new products and services. Let’s not kid ourselves, we’ve got a fantastic opportunity to come out of this in a really good place.”

Stagecoach’s strategy was to move towards digitising as many processes as possible, whether that was engineering, timetables or the way customers are served. This programme has seen the group invest £40m in the introduction of new technological processes over the last couple of years, a move that aims to drive widespread and rapid change. Stockton-Jones highlighted how the group had recently introduced the Workday HR platform in order to move many paper-based systems to electronic format, and this evolution would continue. The introduction of an asset management system in depots would also help to slash the complexity and amount of paper used in maintenance processes, she said.

“In my first week a piece of paper landed on my desk,” she revealed. “I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but I saw everyone getting the same piece of paper… I realised they were our payslips! Thankfully we don’t do that anymore. If I’m very honest, that was my very first culture shock when I came into the business. My second culture shock was when I went out to one of our operating companies, a very good operating company, and they were still using graph paper and pencils to plan their schedules. The amount of labour going into route planning and scheduling for that particular operator blew my mind.”

Stockton-Jones said the decision had been taken to introduce the Optibus scheduling solution across the group in order to give scheduling teams the space to think about the bigger picture. That decision would evolve with additional tools rolled out in the future to aid decision making and ensure passengers are kept up to date.

I’m absolutely gobsmacked about the amount of paper we use to run our businesses. We can do it better. It doesn’t need lots of investment, it just needs diverse thinking

“That’s really important for me,” she added. “I’m absolutely gobsmacked about the amount of paper we use to run our businesses. We can do it better. It doesn’t need lots of investment, it just needs diverse thinking. It just needs us to be more innovative in the way in which we’re running our depots. What got us here won’t get us there. That would be the biggest mistake we could make, believing what got us here will get us there. It won’t.”
Stockton-Jones is also passionate about making Stagecoach an inclusive organisation that better reflects the communities it serves. “That’s not just because

I’m a woman coming into this industry,” she said. “It’s not that. I believe we are responsible for delivering to a customer base that looks like us and it doesn’t at the minute. The diversity of our customer base is not reflected in our operating companies and that’s not okay, because if you don’t know the people that are travelling and you are not like the people who are travelling, then it’s very difficult to serve the people who are travelling. You have to work really hard to try and understand them. It’s not about women, it’s not about people of colour, it’s just about representing real people who travel on our buses and we need to go the extra mile.”

Stagecoach is making good progress towards making 40% of its leaders female and 25% of its workforce identifying as coming from an ethnic minority by 2026. “We’re going to hit those targets, so we’re going to restate those numbers,” Stockton-Jones revealed. “I want to get really ambitious about that… [To work here] all you need is a passion to do the job. In public transport your gender, your race, your orientation aren’t prerequisites for any role. That’s where I want us to be.”

 
This article appears in the latest issue of Passenger Transport.

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