Gazetteer: On the buses

Published on Tuesday 11 November 2008 20:54

PARENTS in the north of Scotland may not have been best pleased with Stagecoach yesterday, after school bus services were hit by a one-day strike, but somebody still loves the Perth-based transport operator.

While pupils in Aberdeenshire, Moray and the Highlands made alternative arrangements to get to classes, Stagecoach's various businesses throughout the UK scooped three gongs at the "Routeone Operator Excellence Awards". The "BioBus" project in Kilmarnock – in which buses run entirely on bio-diesel, made from used cooking oil and other waste products from the food industry – won the bus operator innovation category.

The project also allows customers in the west of Scotland to exchange used cooking oil for discounts on their bus tickets.

Since the project began in October 2007, Stagecoach said it had cut emissions from the buses by 80 per cent and saved the equivalent of 550 tonnes of carbon from being released. It says more than 21 tonnes of used cooking oil has been recycled.

Stagecoach Cambridge and Peterborough scooped the large operator of the year award and Mark Threapleton, managing director at Stagecoach Manchester, won a special award to mark his 32 years of service in the sector.

KILLER QUOTE

WE'VE seen no slackening off in the pace of demand and those customers that want to cut costs – particularly government bodies – will come to people like us."

Peter Rogers, chief executive of support services group Babcock International

FACT OF THE DAY

62%

RESEARCH from the Scottish Family Business Association (SFBA) found that 62 per cent of family-run firms have women on their boards of directors.

The SFBA is holding a workshop in Edinburgh tomorrow entitled "She's the boss", at which the importance of succession planning will be discussed.

Speakers include Renee Reid, director of Glasgow Caledonian University's family business centre.

GOOD DAY

Wood Group

ITHACA Energy – the licensee for the Alpha, Bravo and Charlie platforms in the Beatrice field and the Nigg onshore storage terminal – has awarded a new "duty holder" contract to Wood Group's engineering division. Ithaca recently leased the rigs and terminal from Talisman.

BAD DAY

Tesco

THE UK's largest supermarket chain is losing ground to its rivals, according to researchers at Nielsen and TNS.

Tesco hit back yesterday by announcing it would add a further 40 products to its "discounter" range, which was launched in September.