Business review First Student Our strengths Clear market leader (bigger than next four competitors combined) – scale economies in areas such as vehicle and parts procurement, First Student insurance, fleet management, technology development Differentiated offering – safety programme, on-bus technology, strong customer relationships and satisfaction scores We continue to be at the forefront Turnaround plan is progressing through disciplined contract of the industry for investment in portfolio management, capital discipline and cost efficiency plans systems and processes that Repositioning business to sustainably deliver profitable growth enhance customer service levels, and returns from market leadership in the long term. improve fuel efficiency and further differentiate our services. and recovery of operating days lost to weather in the prior year, which more than offset non-employee cost increases. However, worsening driver shortages in some of our markets resulted in higher than planned employee costs in the year. Our cost efficiency programme delivered $14m in savings in the year, less than originally targeted as a result of the driver shortage challenges, which made consistent implementation of best practice procedures more difficult in affected locations. We have taken action to mitigate the impact of the driver shortages going forward whilst continuing to deliver our cost efficiency savings: shortly after the year end we realigned our regional management Dennis Maple and central service structures, resulting in the elimination of 130 President, First Student positions, which will assist in making margin progress in 2016/17. Focused and disciplined bidding 2016 2015 Over the past two years, our bidding strategy has focused on increasing contract pricing on new bids and renewals to ensure that Revenue $2,332.7m $2,368.6m we achieve appropriate returns on the capital required to deliver our services. In the year we completed our second bid season under the Adjusted operating profit $165.0m $177.3 m new pricing strategy, achieving a higher average price increase of 5.3% compared with the first season (4.5%). As is typical, approximately Adjusted operating margin 7.1% 7.5% one-third of our bus portfolio was up for renewal in the 2015 bid Number of employees 57,000 57,000 season. Our contract retention rate was modestly ahead of our expectations at 86% for contracts at risk, or 94% across our total portfolio. Pricing across the marketplace was firmer than in previous First Student’s revenue was $2,332.7m or £1,553.5m (2015: $2,368.6m years, though we continue to see limited organic growth or conversions or £1,478.8m). Revenue increases from improved prices, including the from in-house to private provision, and some smaller local operators second year of our successful contract pricing strategy, moderate continue to bid aggressively to retain business. Net of ‘share shift’ organic growth and a more normal weather season were offset by movements and our decision to retire a number of excess buses contracts not renewed. The decrease of 1.5% on a US Dollar basis from the fleet, our overall bus portfolio at the end of the year was was driven principally by the lower number of school days on which approximately 47,000. In the 2016 bid season, which is now underway, First Student operated in the year, due to the timing of the school we are reflecting the cost inflation challenges we are experiencing calendar. Schools will make these days up at the end of the academic in our pricing for new contract bids and renewals, which we would year or the start of the next, so will fall into our 2016/17 financial year. expect to result in the loss of some business as we have experienced in prior years. Adjusted operating profit was $165.0m or £112.6m (2015: $177.3m or £114.9m), resulting in an adjusted operating margin of 7.1% (2015: 7.5%). As anticipated, the effect of the lower number of operating days was $17m of profit, or a reduction in margin of 0.6%. Our operating results benefited from the second year of improved contract portfolio pricing 10 FirstGroup Annual Report and Accounts 2016 Strategic report 500 operating locations across Fleet of approximately 47,000 US and Canada yellow school buses rigour in raising compliance with best practice operational procedures, Continuous improvement in operating and financial performance disciplined overhead cost management across our 500 locations, reducing non-driving time through our Focus GPS system, more Our biggest operating and financial challenge in the year was efficient engineering via lean engineering practices, and fuel efficiency responding to more significant than usual challenges recruiting and savings from our DriveSMART driver training scheme. Overall our retaining drivers in some of our locations, as a result of the improving management initiatives have delivered recurring cost savings of $14m US economy and tightening employment markets. Short term in the year. remedies for a shortage of drivers result in higher costs from more overtime, increased employee joining incentives and, in the worst Prudent investment in our key assets affected areas, expenditure required to bring in and house additional We continue to be at the forefront of the industry for investment in drivers from elsewhere in our business. Shortages also limit the growth systems and processes that enhance customer service levels, improve of charter revenues and make implementation of best practice fuel efficiency and further differentiate our services. We have deployed procedures more difficult in the areas affected. We are deploying MyFirstPass (swipe card-based location tracking) in a number of appropriate recruitment incentives aligned to local conditions in the locations, and we continue to build our non-school charter offering, areas affected, investing in our targeting and marketing to potential which is attractive from an asset utilisation perspective and where employees, and improving our retention and on-boarding processes revenues increased by 3.5% in the year. We continue to invest in new which we expect to assist in mitigating the impact of this ongoing buses, refurbishments and on-board technology in the year; our challenge. We have increased our target for cost efficiencies in 2016/17, average fleet age reduced slightly to 7.3 years. and shortly after the end of the year we took an important step towards this with the realignment of regional management and central services Responsible partnerships with our customers noted above. We are also upgrading our maintenance practices, and communities benefiting from the expertise of First Transit’s vehicle maintenance Our services form an integral part of the school experience for the services segment. millions of children in our care each day, and we take our responsibilities to them and to their parents, schools and communities very seriously. Notwithstanding challenges elsewhere, we have made significant We have maintained last year’s high customer service scores, and progress reducing certain cost categories this year, by continued continued to invest in safety, completing the roll out of our new Be Safe training programme to all front line managers and supervisors, resulting in a positive impact on our already strong passenger and employee safety metrics. Continuous improvement in our customer service and safety track record is deeply embedded in our values as an organisation, and is a core part of our proposition to our customers and passengers. In addition to cost savings, the fuel efficiency savings from our DriveSMART programme continue to reduce our environmental impact, and we added another 450 alternative fuel buses in the year, taking our fleet to more than 1,700 and making us one of the largest private operators of such school buses in North America. Future priorities First Student is a leader in our marketplace, both in terms of our size and the quality and safety of the services we provide. We will continue to improve our financial performance through our contract pricing Recognising excellence strategy and operating efficiency programmes to drive appropriate in maintenance returns on the capital we invest. In the longer term, our unique market position, customer proposition and improving operational efficiency Several First Student locations recently earned the Blue Seal will ensure we are increasingly well placed to grow through further of Excellence from the US National Institute for Automotive conversion, tuck-in acquisitions and organic opportunities. Service Excellence (ASE). The ASE is an independent Outlook non-profit organisation created in 1972 to improve the In the year ahead we expect First Student’s ‘up or out’ contract pricing quality of vehicle repair and service by testing and certifying programme to largely offset cost inflation and to benefit from further automotive professionals. The Blue Seal is its highest cost efficiencies, a higher number of operating days and a reduction certification. Our maintenance best practices and streamlined in our fuel costs due to our hedging profile. Although these will be procedures are among the most innovative and stringent in partially offset by the driver shortage headwinds we are experiencing, the industry, helping to keep safe, rigorously maintained we expect significant margin progression for 2016/17 to at least 9%. buses on the road without interruption. As usual, First Student’s operating results will be significantly weighted Continuous improvement in operating and to the second