Lucketts Group Counter Productive
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Operator / Lucketts Lucketts \ Operator Drivers are planned ahead as far as possible but realistically, the nature of coach operation has changed so much in the past few years that the plan is constantly – Always adapting changing, so too much notice would be Lucketts Group counter productive. There is a desire to give staff as much notice as possible of work but it is a challenge. To help the staff plan and have a life outside of work, A view across the Fareham yard showing the side of rotas have been implemented for private the offices and beyond them the workshops. hire drivers, so that they at least know when their rest days are, if not what they are doing on the days they are at work. At 14.00 each day there is a meeting involving the planning, operations, engineering and sales departments at which the following day’s operations are handed over to the delivery team and that day’s programme becomes live. Any changes A Scania Century in the latest Worthing Coaches livery. thereafter are taken care of by the delivery team who make sure that the drivers are prepared for their work and everything is delivered on time and to the correct standard. A supervisor with a group-wide remit is based in Fareham on a 24/7 REPORT BY STUART JONES hadn’t anticipated. In the same period, the Ian who now run the company with a basis, working closely with supervisors number of staff has grown from 207 to skilled team that includes, Ian Macintyre; including those at the satellite depots. almost 300. Group Engineering Director, Mark The third leg of the three part function aintaining growth over three To find out what they do, how they Jordan; Sales & Marketing Director, Paul is support, looking after administration, generations of family management do it and what they’ve been investing Barringer, and the latest addition to the time sheets, pay, leave allocation and all takes a lot of hard work and in, Stuart Jones called first at the team, Finance Director, Mike Allcock. other office administration functions. M commitment but above that it Worthing Coaches operation meeting The main element of the group is There is a separate compliance function for requires the ability to adapt and change as Group Operations Manager, Ian Lucketts Travel, which has its base the very regimented compliance process markets and circumstances evolve, taking Macintyre, before going on to Fareham at Broadcut in Fareham. Completely that Lucketts has looking at drivers’ hours. the opportunities that arise and learning to see brothers and joint Managing modernised in 2010, it is a large site the new skills needed to stay efficient, Directors, Steve and Ian Luckett, who that incorporates a fully equipped four Compliance legal and profitable. The Fareham based showed me the rest of the empire. bay workshop facility, a sizeable coach Compliance is taken hugely seriously Lucketts group is an example of how to Lucketts origins go back to 1926 when parking area and a new office block at the at Lucketts; I can’t remember visiting do it, running 130 vehicles (112 coaches) Harry Luckett started a haulage and front of the site that is the nerve centre an operator that is quite as switched under three brand names on the South storage business that ran alongside his of the operation. The Group functions Currently the newest coach on the Worthing Coaches allocation and the only private hire vehicle that isn’t an on to the requirements and uses the Coast. In the last four years, turnover has farming interests. His son David joined are all based here though the Worthing Irizar Century is this 2013 Irizar i6 bodied Scania K360IB. process of ensuring them, as well as the jumped 56% from £12.8m in 2010/2011 in 1963 and took the reigns only three Coaches depot at Lancing and Coliseum efficient operation of the rest of the to over £20m in 2013/14, the latter years later following Harry’s sudden Coaches depot at West End have links to is in many ways, leading. We can because it is what their business needs. business, in such a positive way to inform figure higher than the £19m originally death. The haulage business thrived and a real-time common platform ensuring continue to build on that and hopefully ‘We’ve got more of a handle on costs its actions and drive up standards. budgeted because the company was able in 1976 David purchased his first coach anyone connecting to the system will lead change in the industry,’ he said. than most,’ he said, but adding, ‘as Every week there is a compliance to take on extra rail replacement work it from Armchair Travel, taking his test have access to the same information. When I first talked to Ian Luckett you get bigger, costs can get siloed.’ meeting at which 25 different topics are with Ben Stanley Coaches (where Steve Plugging in his laptop in Lancing, Ian about writing this article he told me that Organisation is the key to efficient addressed in great detail. All of the systems Telling also drove). In 1983 his son Steve Macintyre explained, ‘Worthing Coaches the company was a first adopter of new running and to this end the operations are in place to generate the information Below left: Joint MDs Steve and Ian Luckett with started working for the business, followed operates as a satellite of Fareham with technology. Returning to the subject he function has been restructured, as Ian needed to confirm the current status founder Harry Luckett and Chairman David Luckett two years later by his brother Ian, by the same tools, so we can operate to refined his comments saying, ‘We want Macintyre explained. Previously there against the criteria covered and there pictured behind. which time the coach fleet was up to 12, the same standards. It gives a smaller to be ahead of the game on technology was a controller each for private hire, is a traffic light system that indicates Below right: Ian Macintyre, Groups Operations outnumbering the trucks. Today, David business the systems and procedures that and processes. People sometimes mix National Express and contracts but this the standing of every point on the list. Manager. remains Chairman, though it is Steve and fundamentally make it a better operation. up tools and assets with the things they arrangement involved varying degrees of Everyone attending has a full report to It enables us to be safe and compliant do. We don’t want to be the first or have crossover, with delivery getting in the way read beforehand so there are no surprises, and gives us a leading edge.’ Ian has been something for the sake of it; we want to of planning and vice versa. The solution the meeting can be kept concise, and with the company for two years after a adopt new processes because they make us was to split the work into three central the emphasis can be on understanding career in aviation and aviation supply and more efficient. In the past we have been functions (planning, delivery and support), the causes of any issues and developing learned from what that business went the early adopters, but we have learned with the planning function looking after and pursuing a course of action that through. ‘It had to change because of that isn’t always the best policy, so now we everything the group does, so that there will put things back in the green. cost pressures. If it was going to survive will only buy the first of a new product if are now no boundaries between depots, Particular attention is paid to any it had to do things differently, which it benefits the customer and the business.’ allowing the best allocation of assets. infringements that occur and the details on was hard at the time but ultimately good He believes that the industry has a The planning department works on a them are broken down and investigated. As because it made businesses better. He was tendency to be inward looking and that 180 day horizon allocating all vehicles way a result the frequency of their occurrence attracted to Lucketts because he sees them there is a lot of ‘bus enthusiasts’ who into the future. They monitor the situation is reducing. Requirements such as walk as further ahead than many companies. want to drive or run a tri-axle coach to ensure there are no nasty surprises round checks are closely monitored, ‘Their attitude and use of technology because they aspire to it rather than involving lots of vehicles and no work. checks are made daily to ensure that 18 / Bus&Coach Buyer / 03 April 2015 @bus_coachbuyer / www.busandcoachbuyer.com www.busandcoachbuyer.com \ @bus_coachbuyer 03 April 2015 \ Bus&Coach Buyer \ 19 Operator / Lucketts Lucketts \ Operator Top left: A Scania Irizar Century in the darker livery DVSA’s new ‘earned recognition’ project and therefore will not be able to justify used prior to the current simpler scheme. which is currently being proposed and their costs. In the meantime they are Top left: One of the Coliseum Tourliners shows off the Top right: A Scania Caetano Levante formerly used scoped by DVSA. Under it, operators opt operating dual paper/digital systems. Worthing side of Chichester and runs there is no separate workshop and an latest livery as it turns into the bottom end of London’s on National Express work that has been repainted for in to a system that opens their records into a school near Fareham is covered, engineer comes over from Fareham each Park Lane.