Customer Care » 2008 Trapeze UK User Conference

Keynote Speakers

Monday, June 2nd Keynote by Eric Stewart Director of Bus Operations Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT)

Eric Stewart became SPT's Director of Bus Operations in December 2006 and his involvement in the bus industry spans almost 20 years. This appointment means he is in the unique position of having gained experience in both the private and public sectors of the bus industry.

He began his transport career in 1989 as IT Systems Manager with Strathclyde Buses. From there, as the company became First Glasgow, he progressed to the post of Managing Director where, among other achievements, he managed to improve rates of pay for drivers while also improving driver efficiency. By the time Mr Stewart left First Glasgow, the company had the highest driver efficiency ratio of any bus company in the UK.

Prior to his appointment with SPT Mr Stewart also served as a non-elected member of the Partnership. During his first year as Director of Bus Operations, he instigated a number of important changes within the bus industry to improve the quality of bus provision across Strathclyde and make customer focus the main priority.

Mr Stewart looks forward to further improving the standard of bus provision by continuing to work closely with all industry partners.

Tuesday, June 3rd Keynote by Dilip Chauhan (MBA; Eng. Tech; MIRTE) Transport & Supplies Manager Coventry City Council

Dilip Chauhan comes from a career background and experience in Passenger Transport, Fleet & Engineering within local government. Currently with Coventry City Council he is responsible for Passenger Transport, Fleet Management, Procurement and Site Management with a trading turnover of £18.5M and employing over 300 staff. Over the last 18 months Dilip has led on developing Routeforward, which is a highly successful and nationally recognised integrated transport & travel business model delivering independent travel and transport solutions to many organisations within Coventry. Routeforward is a cross sector partnership, consisting of CENTRO (Regional Passenger Transport Authority), Travel Coventry, Coventry Primary Care Trust and Community Transport amongst many other organisations. Core to Routeforward's business model is its Travel Bureau, which uses Trapeze to receive bookings, schedule and deliver transport for about 1500 people daily, amounting to over 600,000 trip each year, covering about 1.8 million miles. The Routeforward model has not only achieved and evidenced value for money efficiencies for Coventry. It has also made a huge difference in many people's day to day lives by enabling them to travel independently and broaden their horizons.