Go North East commended for engineering excellence

Significant investment into its award-winning employee training schemes combined with an injection of over £10million into new vehicles, technology and equipment has driven engineering improvements at Go North East, to achieve the highest standard available from the National Express Operator Awards in relation to its coach fleet.

Following its latest audit by National Express, for which Go North East operates UK-wide coach services, it was awarded the Engineering Gold Standard, together with the sought-after ‘Golden Spanner’ trophy for Engineering Excellence.

The annual assessment reviewed standards across the company’s facilities and maintenance, planning, training and paperwork processes. Random vehicle inspections were also undertaken across its fleet of 30 coaches.

Head of Engineering at Go North East, Colin Barnes said: “Feedback from National Express revealed improvements to all engineering procedures, showing that Go North East is operating to the highest possible standards. We’re delighted to see our award boosted from green to gold.”

Colin also credits the company’s high standards to its focus on team training and support. He added: “Our engineers work hard to deliver our vision of ‘journeys taken care of’ and safely transport over 175,000 people using Go North East buses every day. It is our responsibility to provide the support they need to do their jobs to the best of their ability and we will continue to invest in our teams to maintain high standards.”

In partnership with Gateshead College, the bus company has created several training programmes bespoke to its engineering workforce. These include its highly-coveted apprenticeship scheme to health and safety courses, which in 2017 saw the region’s third largest employer enjoy a record-breaking year with an investment of over 3,000 hours in training.