Issue 11 | Autumn Edition Issue June 2017 CDC Victoria’s quarterly newsletter featuring updates, Newsletter developments and the people who drive the business From your SDM’s 4 Driver Appreciation Day 7 Celebrating our Cultural Diversity 8 Welcome! How we cope and adapt with change is of our choosing. It is never easy, but without change we Dear Colleagues, will stagnate into irrelevance. CDC Victoria has gone Some of you would be aware that Mr George through significant change over the last few years Konstantopoulos resigned from his position as and the support of a wonderful team in coping General Manager, Operations from CDC Victoria and adapting with these changes is not taken for in early April 2017 – after over 3 years supporting granted. This includes everyone on the front line the business in its evolution from an organisation who have continued to deliver a stellar service to focussed on strong operational delivery to one that our customers. In the ‘Customer Satisfaction Survey’ is focused also on its community. George has now that we undertook at the end of 2016 - over 500 joined Transdev in a similar role to the one he left, customers were surveyed across our network and but far closer to home and with more time with his 89 percent of them were satisfied with the trip young family. they took. This is equivalent to a 4.5-star rating in Another farewell in April that you might not be so satisfaction and we should all be rightly proud. aware of is the leadership change in our parent There is much more change on the horizon for CDC 2 company in Singapore, ComfortDelGro Corporation. Victoria. This includes a move to the new Wyndham ComfortDelGro’s founding Managing Director and Depot that is scheduled for some time in late Group Chief Executive Officer - Mr KUA Hong Pak September and/or early October. The new contract stepped down on 30 April 2017 after 14 years at the commencing 1 July 2018 will be another significant helm. He is succeeded by Mr YANG Ban Seng who change that will see the Company operating to is now the new MD/Group CEO of ComfortDelGro elevated expectations from our stakeholders. New Corporation. leadership both at our parent company and here The Chairman of ComfortDelGro, Mr LIM Jit Poh, at CDC Victoria will also usher in change. With the remarked that “with this change in leadership, same spirit of resilience that we’ve demonstrated in ComfortDelGro has officially entered a new era. It the last few years, I am confident that we will cope, has been a great and rewarding journey for us thus adapt and grow from strength to strength. far but the journey is far from over.” In his address I look forward to working with you as we ride the as the new MD/Group CEO, Mr Yang expressed his new wave of change ahead of us. I will also leave “sincere appreciation and gratitude to our founding you with a quote from Mother Teresa which is not MD/Group CEO for his sterling leadership, astute just about coping or adapting, but initiating change management and steadfast dedication.” Under the and improving the world we live in – the cornerstone leadership of Mr Kua, the Group grew from its hum- of our community engagement efforts “I alone can- ble beginnings in 2003 to become “today’s trans- not change the world but I can cast a stone across port giant with a market capitalisation of over S$5 the waters to create many ripples.” billion, vehicle fleet of over 44,000 and employee Warmest regards, size of over 22,000 spanning a seven countries.” Nicholas Yap They say that change is the only constant in life. Chief Executive Officer – CDC Victoria Welcome onboard to all our new employees Waheed Bhatti, Sugath Jayasuriya, Kamlesh Dave, Kosa Julu, Roy Uelese (ALTONA), Chris Tataridis Andrew Goodwin, Andrew Friars, Ben Hales, Shayne Carroll (GEELONG), Tasman Bathurst Christina Gouvalari, Anestis Kalaitzis, Viorel Avram, Yiannis Theodorou, Dominic Fernandez, Seongmin Kim, Alireza Asadi (OAKLEIGH), Sam Rouse (Mechanic), Raewyn Judd, Paul Grinstead, Odysseas Karipidis (BALLARAT), Chris Rudland (Mechanic), Gurjeet Singh, Telal Khan, Shanthiratna Ranepura (WERRIBEE) Unite! | CDC Victoria Newsletter News Gender Access Survey Earlier this year, to mark International Women’s Day, CDC Victoria’s People & Culture team launched a Gender Access Survey to gain a better understanding of our female employees experiences working in both our industry and our company, and gain ideas on how we can make public transport a more attractive career choice for women. We asked a range of questions, from ‘Why did you first join this industry’ and ‘How suitable do you think your job is for females’, to ‘Do you feel men and women are treated equally in 80 percent our workplace’, and ‘Does CDC have a gender of respondents inclusive culture’. believe CDC has We also asked for examples and feedback on our inclusiveness, reasons why we might employ a gender inclusive so few women in our business, and what we can culture 50 do to change that. Some of the key words used percent of in those answers were: respondents first joined this industry after someone recommended it to them leadership 3 support part-time behaviour “sweetie” ridiculed chauvinisticenvironment support demeaning culture uncomfortable personal language equality sexism colleagues industryvulnerable camaraderie “darling”roles appreciation harassment friendly gender training barriers SPaRCQrosters perception dominated safety undervalued crass respect diverse inclusion women family flexibility facilities nepotism Two-thirds The information we gathered will be used as part of our of respondents Gender Access Plan, where we aim to do our bit to help don’t think we State Government to increase the number of women in our always treat men industry from 16 percent to 25 percent by 2020. and women Thanks to all who participated in our survey. We continue equally to welcome any feedback from our teams as to how we can encourage more women to join CDC! CDC Victoria Newsletter | Unite! From your SDM’s Altona Depot Congratulations to Kirisimasi (Kris) Muaava from News Altona depot, who has been recognised for his help and compassion, as he attended to an elderly passenger who fell over on his bus. The passenger sustained a nasty injury to the back of her head and Kris was quick to attend to her. While waiting for the ambulance to arrive, Kris focussed all of his attention on keeping the passenger calm and comfortable. The passenger was immensely grateful for his help, and had nothing but praise (and a few hugs) for Kris. A few weeks after the incident, Kris was very pleased to see the passenger waiting at the same bus stop for him. She had been at the stop for a few hours to make sure she could see him again, to ...I am committed to ensuring we thank him, and make sure he was okay. “ grow together, develop ideas and Kris received Altona Depot’s SPaRCQ award in March for Passion. options that support our drivers. ” Ravneet Walia, SDM, Altona Depot – Frank Hurley 4 Sunshine Depot There have been several changes at Sunshine depot since I joined the CDC family in June 2016. Geelong Depot Amalgamation of rosters, changes to the yard operations and restructuring our operations team, We have had an extremely busy start to 2017 and to name a few. We have also completed significant I thank all of our staff for their wonderful efforts. updates to the depot including completing the We have seen significant change to our regular services, changes in staff and undertaken some driver’s kitchen, painting the driver’s area and huge charter tasks, and all have been handled in painting other areas within the depot. These a most professional manner. This extends to our improvements have made the depot a much driving, admin, maintenance, yard and cleaning friendlier and cleaner place to work at. staff. A great effort! Sunshine depot is certainly rich in cultural diversity, We are continuing to work with other local and this was so evident at the ‘Taste of Harmony’ operators, PTV, Victoria Police and Authorised festival, where Sunshine received the “Best Depot” Officers to improve their presence on our network. award for participation and presentation. The way Our aim is to increase the frequency of having them in which everybody supported the event was a true travel on our buses to improve the fare compliance testament to the passion of our drivers and staff. and anti-social behaviour. Moving forward, I am committed to ensuring we Our Trainer, Gary Vagg has been very busy grow together, develop ideas and options that undertaking driver assessments across our team of support our drivers - both on and off road. There 123 drivers. He is nearing completion of the first is a strong history at Sunshine depot with many of round of these assessments with only a few more our drivers having been with us for over ten years. to go. I am pleased to report that his feedback The passion for our business and our passengers is has been very positive regarding the calibre of our clearly evident. driving staff. Our Safe and Sound training will be commencing shortly which will help empower our Thank you for the support, and I look forward staff to manage situations which may occur on board to working with everybody to achieve the best better too. outcomes for Sunshine and CDC. Keep up the great work! Frank Hurley, SDM, Sunshine Depot. Doug Nyman, SDM, Geelong Depot. Unite! | CDC Victoria Newsletter Oakleigh Depot News Since my arrival at Oakleigh Depot, I have made it my absolute priority to continuously improve this depot as we strive to become a benchmark depot.