Magical scenes at Pride Park

Barry takes £1,000 top title

There was a touch of magic at Derby’s Pride Park as Bulwell driver Barry Allitt was crowned Driver of the Year at our 7th annual Really Good Service Awards.  The 36-year-old drives on the radcliffe lines service out of Broad Marsh bus station.

In a celebration of top-flight customer service, our Drivers of the Month for 2008, Commendation Winners, short-listed award winners and their guests came together for the gala dinner and awards ceremony on Wednesday May 6th.  This year, the event was hosted by magician Paul Daniels who was joined on the occasion by his wife Debbie McGee.

Depot of the Year

For the third year running Nottingham’s Broadmarsh team took the title ‘Depot of the Year’ - judged on really good customer service right across the board. The award is sponsored by Belmont International, respected throughout the bus industry in the field of insurance and financial services. 

Outstanding Achievement

The Outstanding Achievement award is presented for customer service beyond the call of duty.

Highly commended - David Morley, of Broadmarsh.

Area Operations Manager, Sharon Bailey - collecting the award for David Morley

When David saw people were stranded in Beeston late at night after a bus broke down, he gave up his break and took them all home.

Runner-up - David Claydon, from Sutton.

When David witnessed a car crash, he called the emergency services, helped frightened children out of both cars, and even directed the traffic until the police and ambulance crew arrived.

Winner - Dave Walker, who works at Derby bus depot.

Dave kept an eye on one of his passengers who it turned out had fallen in town.  When her condition worsened, he called an ambulance – and even telephoned later the same day to check she was fine.

Then it was on to the big prize, Driver of the Year.

Paul Daniels invited all the Drivers of the Month to the stage for a rapturous round of applause. Then, a hush descended on Pride Park as the award presentation began.

Highly commended was last year’s runner-up Jayne Phillips, who works at Sutton bus depot.  She drives on the nines service between Derby and Mansfield and has been with the company since 2002.

In second place was Eric Leverton who is one of the industry’s longest serving drivers with well over 30 years of service.  He takes the wheel on service 27 between his home town of Ilkeston and Kimberley.

The room then erupted into applause as Paul Daniels  announced Barry Allitt as this year’s Driver of the Year.

Mystery travellers who are the judges for the award – which wins the radcliffe lines driver a £1,000 holiday and an extra day off every year with pay – described 36-year-old Barry as a “superb driver who made every customer feel valued and welcome, but still managed to provide a relaxing, really smooth and punctual ride”.

Jeff Counsell, the new managing director of trent barton, said: “This is a celebration of everything that we do to delight our customers.  Everyone here is a winner.

“All of our finalists are true champions whose dedication and meticulous customer care are typical of the whole trentbarton team.  No one underestimates how difficult a bus driver’s job is in terms of running to a timetable in completely unpredictable traffic – while at the same time exercising their discretion to assist their customers.”