Safety as a Personal Core Value

I was walking my lovely rescue dog with my wife and daughter and while on my walks I often see drivers  and  sometimes even stop and say hello at a bus stop if time allows! So it is with particular pleasure that I want to tell you this story.
  I saw a driver carry out 'PAWS' whilst I was on my walk, an elderly customer boarded and I watched as the driver waited and used his mirror until she was safely seated. He then pulled away at a safe speed and merged into the traffic flow without incident. To say I was proud of my colleague goes without saying everybody knows how passionate I am about safety, so to see a shining example, for us all, I had to congratulate him.
So here in lies my dilemma  perhaps I wasn't going to see this driver for a week or so and wanting to seize the moment I completed a safety commendation on my phone. I felt he deserved to be congratulated for leading by example and showing others how it can be done.

I finally caught up with the driver on friday and I hardly had to say a word as soon as I said "I was walking my dog..." my colleague to his absolute delight (and mine) recounted the whole episode to me!
So he wanted to keep the customer safe, So he chose to use Paws, So he has Safety as a Personal Core Value!
we chatted for a couple of minutes and i'm sure he will recount the story to other colleagues.
It would be brilliant if we could all sing from the same hymn book and we all put our selves into the shoes of vunerable and old passangers.  Afterall,  we will all get old one day, am I wrong?
We have the power in our hands to act safely, only you can choose to take the correct option 'self and peers' are great sources of Safety Behaviour. If I make a mistake ,we all do from time to time we're only human afterall,  I give myself constructive feedback.What could I have done differently? We' ve all been there, but by turning it into a positive I learn from my mistake.

   Murphy, assistant safety rep and bus spotter

BE-FIRST conference

Hi all, yesterday I participated in the Be-First Conference, UK Bus, Rail, Greyhound,Student and Transit and Group Support Colleagues from across First Group were all in attendance. The day was hosted by Tim O,Toole who is our First Group Chief Executive.
In the morning we concentrated on "Our vision and values":

Our Vision -what we want to do:
"To provide solutions for an increasingly congested world..keeping people moving and  communities prospering."

Our Values -how we need to work:
"Committed to customers"
"Dedicated to safety"
"Supportive of each other"
"Accountable for performance"
"Setting the highest standards"

For me, what resonated more than anything else was how customers have got to be at the heart of everything we do, whatever our aim is the customer should be the focal point for us.  Let's look at some simple actions to make our customers enjoy their travelling experience more:

• A smile as the customer gets onto the bus can mean so much and impacts not only on them but also on how you choose your attitude and you may well have a great and safe day simply by this easy action.
• Waiting for a vulnerable person to sit down, letting them know that their safety is important.

We all do a good job so let's take time to improve even more and make every journey great.

I would encourage anybody to share any ideas that will benefit our customers and subsequently our company.  After all, the front-line is at the heart of our business and from here is where we succeed.

The afternoon session was dedicated to "Be-Safe" this will be part of our safety behaviour transformation over the coming months.The absolute target being to make safety for all and everyone of us our Personal Core Value.  We had presentations from all sections of our business and it was good to know that we all have a target of reducing injuries and incidents.

Next week, I will be at the Essex Safety Meeting, and the week after I will be representing Essex colleagues at a "Collision Task force meeting and also a "Your Voice" update meeting to make sure we are all heading in the right direction. So please, do not hesitate to contact me about any issue that you may want to bring to my attention.
Your Views are very important and it is my task to make sure they are heard.