Rail replacement service bus blunders

Before I start, this is not a rant or moan, but yesterday I had a shocking journey from Formby to Liverpool supposedly on a train.

Now, having spent many a weekend on such works in the past, railway maintenance and renewals need doing and blockade working during holiday periods is the best option.
To set the scene, a railway bridge at Sandhills north of Liverpool was being renewed and there was a bus replacement service on. Now, considering the train to Bootle Oriel Road where the train terminated was not that full, I didn't see a problem.

However, a total lack of co-ordination, organisation and communication by the Train Operating Company (TOC) led to a chaotic experience which increased a 30 minute journey to a 1 hour one.

Can it be so hard to:

• Communicate verbally with passengers
• Have a sign saying where to queue
• Have decent information about where replacement buses pick up from

Rather than having:

• Rude and abusive staff who clearly did not like being outside the relative warmth of a railway station
• A total lack of information on which bus was for where

The big joke in this that the TOC charged full fare where some had to stand on the steps to the top deck of the bus and the bus itself was an experience.

This small example shows the totally uncoordinated nature of public transport in the UK as even a rail replacement bus service had little to no apparent planning. No wonder so many people travel by car and avoid public transport. As someone who supports our railway it's also hard to state a case at times like this.

A picture tells a thousand words (almost!)

When auditing, you can have to write a lot of information. However, do you actually have to scribe?
Recently when auditing, I've started taking many more photographs.

This is for twofold, one to save writing detail when the weather on sites is a challenge, despite using a weatherwriter. Secondly, the photos can be used to share good practice. However, for the latter, I'm very careful in not including any client logos and the photos are kept quite anonymous.

To have a look at some recent environmental good practice photos on construction sites, please visit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/diemltd/

The Only Way Is Ethics at Christmas

It’s that time of year when you may be invited to a customer’s Christmas party, or receive a business gift from a supplier, but please beware of being compromised professionally..

RICS have mandatory rules for firms and members, but are useful for all professionals

This extract from The Bribery Act 2010 is reflected by RICS Rules of Conduct for Members (Version 4)

3. Members shall at all times act with integrity and avoid conflicts of interest and avoid any actions or situations that are inconsistent with their professional obligations.

http://www.rics.org/site/scripts/download_info.aspx?downloadID=3521

and mirrored by RICS Rules of Conduct for Firms (Version 4)

3. A Firm shall at all times act with integrity and avoid conflicts of interest and avoid any actions or situations that are inconsistent with its professional obligations.

http://www.rics.org/site/scripts/download_info.aspx?downloadID=593

Please, if you are in a position to receive Christmas gifts, please just think what could happen. I was told that a surveyor received a bottle whisky wrapped in Christmas paper, but around the actual bottle, inside the wrapping paper, were £50. What if that was to happen, what do you do? The surveyor in this occasion happened to returned the “gift” ASAP to the director of the firm donating and reported to his firm’s senior partner.

To protect yourself the best way is to decline gifts, but would this offend the giver?  You could look at setting up an office policy for receiving gifts so the process is transparent and if something is deemed inappropriate takes place, the correct reporting mechanism takes place.

The Bribery Act 2010 does not really complicate things as the guidance at

http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/docs/bribery-act-2010-quick-start-guide.pdf

says

So you can continue to provide tickets to sporting events, take clients to dinner, offer gifts to clients as a reflection of your good relations, or pay for reasonable travel expenses in order to demonstrate your goods or services to clients if that is reasonable and proportionate for your business.