An introduction to National Express

Dear Colleague,

At National Express we are very proud of our brand and the consistently high standards our customers have come to expect regarding safety and customer service. As a customer-facing professional, you will be very aware of how important it is to deliver a great service for our customers every time and this Handbook is intended to be a useful tool for you to refer to when you need clarity, guidance or insights into all the different elements of serving our customers and supporting our drivers.

The Handbook is broken down into different key subject areas: Workplace Commitment, Safety, Customer Service Standards, Operational Information Accessibility and Inclusion, Ticketing, (HR Policies and useful information) Performance & Development, Attendance, Pay Reward and Benefits, Work-Life Balance), other Practical Information. This makes it much easier for you to search by topic to find the information you want to access and read about. I do hope that you will find the document useful and easily accessible.

We are also very aware of how things can change and the need to keep the information up-to-date. By making this important document available electronically, we can do this much more efficiently without the need to print and distribute updated versions which can then quickly become out of date.

Finally, I would like to repeat how committed we are to delivering a safe, professional accessible and customer-centric service for our customers, drivers and internal colleagues every time. Every customer provides us with an opportunity to impress and exceed their expectations. Please do take time to familiarise yourself with what is expected of you and some useful things to remember when dealing with the many different scenarios you will find yourself in as a customer-facing professional working for National Express.

Chris Hardy, Managing Director

This handbook is designed to support you during your time with National Express and provide you with key information on areas such as Safety, Payroll, Personal Development and many other policies and procedures.

There will also be lots of people on hand to assist you such as your line manager, colleagues and HR team hr@nationalexpress.com.

Don’t forget to check our Portal where you can find the full HR library and other important information related to different departments across the Group.

Working together, National Express will continue to grow as a place at which we are proud to work and our customers are proud to use.

Thank you for being part of our team.

National Express coach is the UK’s largest operator of scheduled coach services, running over 1,800 services to more than 540 cities and towns every day. In 2019, we provided journeys to over 21 million passengers. National Express operates coach services direct to the terminal for all major UK airports 24 hours a day with 1,100 airport services every day.

National Express Group is a leading public transport operator with bus, coach and rail services in the UK, North America, continental Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

The Group has a fleet of over 31,500 vehicles and nearly 940 million journeys are made on National Express services each year. National Express was the first transport group to become a Living Wage Foundation accredited employer in the UK. Further information on National Express Group can be found here.

 

Our Vision and Values were launched as a fundamental statement of who we are as a business and how we operate. They were then refreshed in 2020 to reflect our renewed ambition and approach for a new decade.

• Our Vision is to be the world's premier mass transit operator with services offering leading safety, reliability and environmental standards that customers trust and value.
• Our Vision is rooted on a Belief that: Driving modal shift from cars to high-quality mass transit is fundamental to a safe, green and prosperous future.
• Our Purpose is to help lead this modal shift by making mass transit an increasingly attractive option for all our customers, whether they are individuals, transport authorities, school boards or businesses. We seek to do this by earning our customers' loyalty by providing safe, reliable and great value multi-modal services on clean and green vehicles.
• We will achieve this through an Approach that seeks social and environmental leadership to ensure we are a good employer and partner, while using technology to make our services increasingly easier to access, safe and efficient. It is this model of progressive partnership that: delivers industry-leading services for our customers and communities; secures rewarding careers for our people; and generates sustainable returns for our shareholders.

 

Underpinning this Vision, we have a common set of Values across National Express that guide us on how we operate as a business and help us prioritise what we focus on.

Our Safety Value: The safest mass transit operator in the communities we serve.

More than anything else, we value the safety of our customers, employees and the public generally. This priority is reflected in our policies and behaviours - the way we do business.

Responsibility for managing our performance rests with Ignacio Garat, our Group Chief Executive Officer and the Managing Directors/Chief Executive Officers of each of our business divisions. Support is provided by the Group Safety Director Alison Forster. All are members of the Group Executive where safety performance is reported monthly. Safety performance is also reported regularly to the Board.

Our Driving Out Harm programme sets the safety standards for all of our business and employees. You can find more information on Driving Out Harm in this handbook.

The right training is key to engaging our people in safety matters, so they understand and take responsibility for managing risks.

Our Customer Value: The most trusted and valued mass transit partner.

Customers are at the heart of everything we do. We continue to work to achieve their lifetime loyalty through delivering excellent services.

Five Golden Rules are to provide a Group-wide standard for customer service and we aim to ensure that every employee is aware of these requirements.

Each business division has its own customer charter which is designed to be tailored to its operations. These contain our commitments on matters such as safety, value for money, communications with customers, service reliability, punctuality and vehicle maintenance.

• We strive to provide a reliable and high-quality service for all of our customers
• We will regularly enter into dialogue with our customers to maintain and develop our services
• We will regularly invest in our facilities to enhance our customer experience
• We aim to address social exclusion through providing access to public transport for people who are less able to use it

Our People Value: The place to work in mass transit.

Delivering on our Vision and for our customers is only possible if National Express is a good place to work. National Express recognises that our workforce is our greatest asset and we want each of our 48,000 employees to reach their full potential and to give their best.

Our commitment to our people includes:

• We will ensure that all of our employees are treated fairly, offered equality of opportunity and we will promote diversity
• We fully recognise the right to organised representation of workers
• We have a zero tolerance approach to harassment, victimisation or bullying
• We encourage and promote an optimal working environment for all of our employees

Our Community & Environment Value: The world's greenest mass transit operator; a trusted partner in the communities we serve.

As a transport company, we don't just move vehicles. We are proud to play a vital part in our communities - whether that's getting people to work, taking them to see loved ones, effectively managing our environmental impact or, above all, taking children safely to and from school.

Directly through the services we offer and through the jobs we provide, we are making a difference in our communities. We believe we have made significant strides in the last year.

Our responsibilities to the wider community also embrace our environmental impacts. You can find out more about our approach to environmental impacts here.

Our Excellence Value: The leader in every market we operate in, trusted to deliver service excellence, consistently.

By being excellent in all that we do we will meet customer expectations, deliver industry-leading services, be a company people are proud to work for and act as a willing and constructive partner. We also believe that Excellence means we are as cost-efficient as we can be.

We launched Excellence as a fifth Value because we want all parts of the business to focus on quality and excellence. Our UK divisions have achieved consistently high scores in the European Foundation for Quality Management assessments, with these businesses attaining five stars.

Ultimately, we believe that these Visions and Values help us to deliver excellent services and drive growth in our business.