Wexford Bus honoured with #StrengthInUnity Transport Hero Awards

Wexford Bus is honoured to have been acknowledged at the Fleet Transport Strength in Unity Transport Hero Awards for continuing to operate throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Fleet Transport Awards took a different route this year – honouring transport and passenger transport companies who provided services during the Covid 19 crisis. Special tribute was paid to the essential workers – the men and women in transport – that went the extra mile in keeping us safe and travelling when permitted during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Wexford Bus, a commercial bus operator, provides public transport across a network of licensed bus services in the Southeast.  The company operated an uninterrupted but reduced schedule throughout the pandemic to facilitate essential workers carrying as little as 3% of the usual volume of customers at times.

Brendan Crowley, Managing Director explained “When the lockdown was announced we immediately contacted the National Transport Authority who confirmed that public transport is an essential frontline service.  We are privileged to hold public transport licenses and felt it was our civic responsibility to continue to operate services for customers who work as frontline workers and needed to make essential journeys.  Services were maintained on the routes operated, with reduced frequency during off peak travel times.”

Resilience is defined as “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change”.  The Wexford Bus team showed resilience throughout this crisis.  The team quickly embarked on a series of alterations to its fleet to reduce the contact between passengers and drivers and maintain physical distancing.  Alterations included erection of a plexiglass protective screen surrounding the driver, screens between rows of passengers, directional signage & hand sanitisation stations.  In addition, many new work practices, disinfecting regimes and new technologies such as card payment devices were introduced to reduce the risks of contracting COVID 19 while travelling with Wexford Bus.

Brendan continued “Keeping our staff and customers healthy and safe whilst doing our best to minimise the risk to all was and is our top priority.  I will be forever grateful to the Wexford Bus team: the drivers who were working on the frontline during this uncertain time, our support team that showed incredible innovation by altering the fleet and our customer service team who quickly adapted work practices to protect staff and customers alike”

As restrictions were eased the company increased the number of services operated and are now operating all scheduled services as per license, albeit at 50% capacity.  There will be difficult months ahead as the industry continues to adapt to the changing environment but each week Wexford Bus has seen a growth in passenger numbers which is very encouraging for all.

Wexford Bus is a commercial bus operator providing public transport across a network of eight licensed bus services in the Southeast and carries the greater share of passengers that travel on M11 corridor between Wexford and Dublin City & Airport.  Wexford Bus also provides school transport, private hire and contracted services.  With a team of over 70 people and a fleet of 45 buses and coaches the company typically carried over 20,000 passengers per week (pre COVID).  Wexford Bus is Certified ISO 9001:2015