BUS APPEALS BODY
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| Annual Report 2010 |
Bus Appeals Body 2010 annual reportDownload this report by right clicking here and selecting your browser's appropriate save option The Bus Appeals Body is a joint undertaking by Bus Users UK and the Confederation of Passenger Transport which revisits the complaints of passengers of bus and scheduled express coach in situations where the passenger has not been happy with the way the bus company has dealt with the situation. In such situations Bus Users UK tries to broker a solution with the bus company, and where this cannot be achieved for whatever reason it is escalated to the Bus Appeals Body. Most operators of scheduled bus and coach services in Britain are members of the Confederation of Passenger Transport, and agree to abide by Bus Appeals Body decisions as part of their CPT membership. However it has no statutory remit. It deals with such cases in England and Wales, excluding London: London, Scotland and Northern Ireland all have statutory bus passenger representation. Lord Snape of Wednesbury continued as chairman throughout 2010, with Dennis Flower representing the bus operators’ perspective and Stephen Morris for Bus Users UK representing the passenger perspective. Once again most cases have been resolved easily and amicably, with little disagreement between the representatives, though inevitably some cases have not been resolved so easily and have required debate at the Body’s bimonthly meetings. Bus Users UK took over the role of providing secretarial and administrative support from CPT in February 2010 and the transition has worked well. Julian Osborne has been undertaking that role, and we are grateful for the work put in by Graham Sutton of CPT over many years. Julian Osborne has been attending Bus Appeals Body meetings this year, while Mike Bartram from Passenger Focus has also attended as an observer. Passenger Focus are undertaking a major investigation into how bus passenger complaints are dealt with across the board. The Bus Appeals Body has cooperated fully with this investigation and looks forward to the publishing of Passenger Focus’s report. Passenger Focus started its full role in representing bus passengers in April 2010, though we had been working closely with them throughout their ‘shadow’ operation in the previous year. 2010 Cases During 2010 Bus Users UK handled a total of 799 complaints, 508 in England and 291 in Wales, of which just 41 were escalated to the Bus Appeals Body, 34 from England and seven from Wales. Of those 41, nine were withdrawn before the Bus Appeals Body had had the opportunity to decide them, largely due to belated decisions by the bus companies to resolve the issue before a decision was issued. The reduction in complaints dealt with by the Body this year reflects a more rigorous approach to resolving complaints by Bus Users UK, and it has been notable that there has been more of a keenness amongst operators, especially the major bus groups, to avoid referral to the Body and more of a willingness to engage with Bus Users UK to reach a satisfactory resolution at an earlier stage. This is also reflected in the nine cases withdrawn before the Bus Appeals Body had reached its decision. Conversely we have been disappointed by the fact that at least two medium-sized operators have been less cooperative than we would have liked and this has led to them being referred to the relevant Traffic Commissioner. Once again most cases were found in favour of the appellant. Just five were found in favour of the operator, and one is still to be resolved.
Resolution of BAB cases 2010 Issues dealt with This year there were more instances of staff attitude being dealt with than reliability issues. These can be more difficult to prove one way or the other, unless CCTV evidence is available. In two cases issues of unreliability were exacerbated by lack of, or wrong, information hence there being 34 issues dealt with on 32 cases. Luggage loss was an issue earlier on in the year, but there have been no further instances referred to the body for some time.
NB: two cases refer to more than one issue; figures shown exclude nine cases withdrawn before decision Issues dealt with by Bus Appeals Body, 2010
No of cases dealt with by Bus Appeals Body, 2005-2010
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