Around October/November 2021, Les spotted an advert for "volunteer drivers for a new bus community bus service around Eynsham". As confident drivers we thought we could do that. Drive for an hour or so, give something back to the community and all that, come home and get on with the rest of our life! And so we did.
January 4th 2022 on a freezing pitch black morning we started our first duty, the first duty of FLM in the depot not knowing the first thing of what we were about. Others had prepared everything, we just had to drive. Auspiciously we had the most fantastic, patient trainer ever in David Miles, who in the following weeks stayed with us as much as was necessary to ensure we knew the route, knew the timetable (in driver terms the "running cards"), ticketing and much more. Strangely our trainer, David, didn't know the first thing about mechanics, buses, driving. But he did have patience & knew everything else. And slowly we learnt. As an aid both Les & I shared the same bus, swapping drivers, learning from each other. Until the frightening moment about three weeks in we each drove a separate bus. And so we thoroughly learnt how to drive buses on a scheduled service.
The other person running FLM, Dave Hartley, began to have health problems and the whole service began to fall into jeopardy. The buses were running but about late February the whole project was facing imminent collapse, without a functioning executive, and especially not even a functioning bank account! This is when I decided I could help with much more than just bus driving and stepped up as Director.
Although I knew little about bus companies, I did know how to run startup companies. Over the coming days and weeks - and indeed months - the huge problems began to become manageable and lessen bit by bit as order descended. It cannot be understated how huge the challenges were in those days, not just for me, but for David and indeed all the other volunteers stepping up to provide FLM's near faultless record of bus service.
Two things happened to help reduce the significant chaos. David began to find some paid drivers and so we were able to move to a mix of paid & volunteer drivers. One early paid driver, Ian, only wanted to do one morning, but like so many after him found he enjoyed the work so much he did more and more regular fixed shifts (or duties as we call them). This simplified driver scheduling bit by bit.
The other innovation was going for leased buses. This allowed us to get better quality & more reliable buses for our service. Key to the lease agreements was automatic replacement of a bus whilst one of the buses was in the garage for maintenance work. This is not a cheap solution, but it provides some immense benefits including predictable cash flow. The largest benefit was in operations. Time and time again we found ourselves able to cover duties even when a bus broke down or had to go for maintenance. These buses get hammered and the maintenance done on them is substantial, so having a replacement bus strategy is an imperative.
From the initial 8 students, numbers grew term on term, 5 here, 10 there - every term. The news was gettinig round in the school playground that this service was friendly, effective & affordable. The ideal number for a minibus is about 7/8ths full. A full bus becomes a serious challenge, because as a public service we need to allow space for the general public as well as students. On the other hand an extra bus with just one or two student passengers is very expensive. This placed us with difficult decisions, especially at the start of a new school year every September.
Another innovation was allowing full access to the bus service to students beyond their normal school delivery/collection times. So students then began to use the new 4.15pm hometime service as well as the 3.15pm. They even had full access during school holidays, all at no extra cost.
I don't claim any praise for such innovations, but this is a story of a whole raft of innovations to make the service work for the communities it serves. My main responsibility was daily operations. However as we hit barriers of going from 1 to 2 school buses and then 3 and even 4 on occasions, David and I would have to talk in detail about the risks, and how to test out new ideas, all to keep the very real pressures off from our driver team.
David & I have always worked well as a team, both supportive of each other, knowing the end goal isn't about us. It's about proving a new model for sustainable scheduled community transport serving very rural communities.
The pressures on me have been immense and my health has suffered. Even two years ago I planned to wind down my responsibilities. But succession planning isn't easy - especially when there is no salary involved. We feel it is a shame that having found a new executive, with the support of the old that FLM does not have a future. Had FLM gone on it would have continued its search for innovation with confidence. But it is not to be.
Of all the projects I have been involved with over my career, FLM is standout. I don't regret a second. Now the service we created is now the responsibility of WOCT, Pulhams, backed by Oxfordshire County Council.
My goal now, with the imminent demise of FLM at the end of August is the ensure the legacy of FLM lives on.
Regards
Andy Swarbrick
