In this week’s episode of ‘Inside Belbaker’ we interrupt our Fleet Maintenance Manager, Mel, in her tracks to pay the infamous Gary a visit! Here’s a small transcript of the interview below.

John:
Hi Melanie, where are you going?

Melanie:
I’m going up to see Gary.

John:
That was a very poor attempt of trying to escape the camera.

Melanie:
Yeah, I know. Can’t blame me for trying.

John:
Yeah, that’s true. I’m Guessing you’ve already seen the camera and know what this is about?

Melanie:
Absolutely.

John:
Excited?

Melanie:
Maybe?

John:
Lacking a better word, okay, So I’m going to ask you a couple of questions.

Melanie:
Yeah sure.

John:
So do you want to start maybe with say, what your name is and what you do here at Belbaker?

Melanie:
Sure, my name is Melanie and I’m the maintenance manager here. I suppose my job is primarily to ensure that Belbaker’s buses exceed the industry standards and give a high quality of service to our customers.

John:
Awesome, and a question I guess that gets asked a lot, which you may be able to provide some input on is; What’s it like working as a female in what seems to be a male dominated industry?

Melanie:
Yeah, I love it.

John:
Can you elaborate a little?

Melanie:
I suppose, I don’t really see this as a male dominated industry, I think if you have the drive and the willpower to do anything specific, it doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter what sex you are.

John:
Yeah, for sure. So what advice would you give to other women who are in what seems to be male dominated industries?

Melanie:
Just be yourself and be confident and never give up on what you want to do.

John:
Sounds like good advice. Now, one other very important question. You can’t say you don’t know the answer, because I saw you talking to Gary earlier today. Could you tell me maybe what he does or what his role is at Belbaker?

Melanie:
Speak of the devil.

Despite Alicia being awarded “The First Respondent” in 2018, our crew never seem to catch her in the office. In this week’s short episode of “Inside Belbaker”, join us on the hunt for our ‘Sales and Logistic Manager’, Alicia. Is this the episode where we finally find out who Gary is?

Alicia:
Hey Johnny, how are you doing?

Johnny:
Yeah, good, good. Yeah, You’re the first responder, with an award on your door, but I can never find you?

Alicia:
Oh, that’s because I’m always out somewhere doing something.

Johnny:
So I’m going to ask you a couple of questions.

Alicia:
Sure go for it.

Johnny:
I won’t take too much of your time.

Alicia:
No worries.

Johnny:
What’s your role here at Belbaker?

Alicia:
My role here at Belbaker is “the sales and logistics manager”.

Johnny:
Okay, and how long have you been here for?

Alicia:
Almost six years actually.

Johnny:
Awesome, some fair amount of time.

Alicia:
Yeah, it definitely is.

Johnny:
Okay, and what’s the most stressful situation you’ve ever had in your role?

Alicia:
It would probably have to be when we are out in the middle of nowhere and had over 132 buses to coordinate with very little to no radio reception.

Johnny:
Okay, and what’s your favourite moment?

Alicia:
My favourite moment? Ooh, that’s a tough one. I’d have to say it would’ve been in June this year when we flew to Perth to meet up with the Queensland origin team.

Johnny:
Great, and what do you enjoy mostly about your role here at Belbaker?

Alicia:
What’s not to love about your role here at Belbaker? Working with amazing people, great vehicles in a fun, friendly environment, who wouldn’t want to be here?

Johnny:
Awesome, and one very, very, very important question.

Alicia:
Yep.

Johnny:
Who’s Gary?

Alicia:
Gary. That’s an easy one.

Johnny:
Alicia?

Have you ever wondered how Belbaker coaches manage to show up on time with +45 minutes of congested traffic? Or when a charters requires extra assistance at 3:00AM? Allow us to show you!

John:
Afternoon. How we all?

Janine:
Good thanks. How are you?

John:
Yeah. Good, good. I’m guessing you’ve seen the camera, so you guys know what this is about?

Andrew:
Yes.

Janine:
Absolutely.

John:
So recently on social media, Facebook specifically, we’ve had a lot of people ask if we can get a closer, in-depth look at the logistics team here at Belbaker. So I’m going to burden you guys with a couple of questions, if that’s okay?

Andrew:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

John:
Awesome, so I see you guys running in and out of the office. What’s that all about? Do you want to explain the role a little bit?

Andrew:
Well, pretty much, we’re the operations to the whole thing, so anything that goes wrong or happens is going to come through here. So when we’re running in and out, we’re normally trying to chase up, if a driver is here, has the bus left, what’s actually going on? Does the driver know where they’re going? Has the whole thing come together? So we’re really sort of like the heart of it all, that brings it all back together.

John:
Okay, so a couple of weeks ago I interviewed Mahalia at the client service team. What’s the difference between her role as a Client Service Officer as opposed to your role here in logistics?

Andrew:
Okay, so they basically take all the orders. And they’re also in contact with the clients. What happens is, once that order is processed and comes through, Janine who’s our Head Scheduler, she will then take the information and create the actual charter by putting the bus together with the driver.

John:
Right, that makes sense. So, can you give me a little scenario, or a little bit more of a behind-the-scenes look at the live tracking and all that kind of stuff?

Andrew:
Yeah, sure. Come on over here and I’ll show you, so basically what Janine’s doing right now, is she’s talking to one of the buses, and she’s monitoring what’s happening. All our buses are GPS tracked, and they’re monitored on this screen. So all of this is live and happening right now in real time.

John:
Right, okay, that makes sense. So what’s the red?

Andrew:
So this information here is showing that these buses are caught on a very heavily congested road, and what Janine’s trying to do is assist them if she can, to redirect them, or just to be able to monitor how long that’s going to take to get through that situation.

John:
Awesome, that makes sense. So you guys can kind of see back roads or alternative routes, so they’re not stuck in that congestion?

Andrew:
Exactly, or in a worst-case scenario, if you had a road closed. So say there was a major accident and the road was closed, we can then start to work deviations around that particular problem, so that that way they’re not all sitting there and stuck. We’re able to keep it all moving and keep them on time.

John:
Right, that makes sense. Another question I had for you guys is, because there’s always charters, there’s pretty much 24/7 buses, coaches are out. So what’s the go with getting in contact with you guys? Are you guys always in the office?

Andrew:
We’re here most of the time, but if any of our clients need to call us, or if there’s an issue with a driver where he needs to contact us, we have an emergency phone number. All you need to do is call that, and that phone is monitored 24/7. It’d come through to Janine now, and then she’d be able to sort the problem out.

John:
Okay, and on top of that, what’s the craziest call you’ve ever had?

Andrew:
One of the schools rang us and said, unfortunately they forgot to book a charter, and what they wanted was us to get a bus out there straightaway. Because it’s all about customer service, what we did was we organized a driver, organized a bus, and got out there ASAP. The funny thing was, we had no drivers here at the time because everyone was at work, so our CEO jumped in the bus and took off like mad. Because it’s all about customer service.

John:
That’s awesome, all right. Well I know your time’s very valuable, so I won’t take too much of it. Thank you so much for having me here.

Andrew:
Not a problem.

John:
All the best.

Janine:
Thanks.

John:
See you later.

In this week’s episode of “Inside Belbaker”, we pay our detailing team a quick visit. This team is the reason why all Belbaker coaches are clean, presentable and arrive to your charter looking the way they do.

Johnny:
Afternoon fellows, how are we?

Nick:
Good afternoon.

Emanuel:
Yeah, mate.

Johnny:
Hey, just pretend like the camera’s not here. I’m just going to ask you a couple of questions.

Nick:
Sure thing.

Johnny:
So, do you guys want to go round and state your name, and how long you’ve been at Belbaker for?

George:
I’m George, and I’ve been at Belbaker for about a year now.

Johnny:
Awesome.

Nick:
I’m Nick, I’ve been here for about a month.

Emanuel:
My name’s Emanuel and I’ve been here since January, 2018.

Johnny:
Nice and specific, and what’s your role? What do you guys do here?

Nick:
We’re the general detailing crew. We do all the inside and outsides of buses, you know.

Johnny:
So you guys are responsible for making them look all clean and tidy, the way they do?

Emanuel:
Too right, that’s us.

Nick:
Yep.

Johnny:
Awesome, so on average, how many buses do you guys get cleaned?

Emanuel:
So externally we do about 18.

Johnny:
18?

Nick:
Yeah.

Johnny:
And what about on a really good day? Like what’s the most you’ve ever detailed in a day?

Nick:
If old mate’s not here, we get about 30 done.

Johnny:
30 done? That’s not bad, and one really important question, I’ve been trying to find this out for ages. Do you guys know who Gary is?

Nick:
Gary?

Client Service Officers

Today we put one of our many talented Client Service Officers, Mahalia under the spotlight for 60 seconds. Here’s an interview with Mahalia about her role as a Client Service Officer.

John:
Good afternoon Mahalia, how are you?

Mahalia:
Hey, I’m good, how are you?

John:
Good, good. I’m just going to put you on the spot and ask you a couple of questions.

Mahalia:
Okay.

John:
Awesome. So, to start off with, how long have you been at Belbaker for?

Mahalia:
I’ve been working for Belbaker for almost a year now.

John:
Okay, and what’s your position here?

Mahalia:
I’m a client service officer, which means that I help all of our amazing clients get from point A to point B really seamlessly.

John:
Sounds like a very important role.

Mahalia:
It certainly is.

John:
And what do you enjoy most about it?

Mahalia:
I love the high paced environment, it’s fun, really fast, lots of great people to work with.

John:
Okay.

Mahalia:
I’m Just going to go to the printer.

John:
No worries, I’ll follow you, and what are some of the challenges you face on a day to day basis?

Mahalia:
Definitely not being able to get around to all of our clients is the biggest struggle.

John:
That’s not a bad problem to have, and what’s it like working for a company such as Belbaker?

Mahalia:
Well Belbaker’s such a great family owned business, I really enjoy having my boss and owner of the company three steps away from my desk.

John:
And one more very important question.

Mahalia:
Of course.

John:
Who’s Gary?

Mahalia:
Gary is a snail from SpongeBob-

Speaker 3:
Mahalia, phone call.

Mahalia:
I’ve got to go and take that, I’m sorry.

In this episode, we catch up with 2 of our drivers Cameron and Trevor to ask them about the Drivers Seat and what they mostly enjoy about their roll’s. Here’s a transcript of the interview below.

John:
Hey mate, how are you?

Cameron:
Good thanks, how are you.

John:
Good, good. Sorry to stop you.

Cameron:
That’s all right.

John:
My names John

Cameron:
Hey John.

John:
I’m going to put you on the spot real quick and ask you a couple of questions if you don’t mind.

Cameron:
No, go for it.

John:
Awesome, so how long have you been a driver at Belbaker for?

Cameron:
A couple of years now, so since about 2017.

John:
Oh okay, that’s a fair amount of time.

Cameron:
Yeah.

John:
What do you enjoy most about working for Belbaker?

Cameron:
Look, there’s a lot really. I mean, it’s a family owned company and it’s just a really exciting place to work. We get to go to lots of interesting places like: beaches, theme parks, out into the country sometimes, lots of interesting stuff like that. The equipment’s really good, all the buses are quite new and it’s great equipment to work on, and we do a lot of fun stuff. For instance, at the depot we had free pizza recently and we’ve had barbecues in the past and it’s just great really, just to catch up with our workmates and just enjoy yourself.

John:
What are some of the challenges you face on a day to day basis.

Cameron:
The challenges are just getting people to where they need to go and making sure they’re happy. So at the end of the day, if people are happy and they got to where they needed to go, everybody’s pleased with that. It’s also about working with your fellow bus drivers, your team and just making sure everything runs smoothly. It’s just a really satisfying feeling to know that people are happy and you’ve done the job well.

John:
Awesome. Thank you so much for your time, appreciate it.

Cameron:
No, my pleasure.

John:
I’ll let you go on your way.

Cameron:
Okay.

John:
Awesome, take care.

Cameron:
Cheers.

John:
Good afternoon Trevor, how are you?

Trevor:
Afternoon sir, welcome aboard.

John:
Thank you very much. I’m just going to annoy you for a couple of minutes and ask you a few questions if that’s okay?

Trevor:
Sure.

John:
What kind of charters do you normally do? What do you specialize in?

Trevor:
I’m a lead driver for a school, so there’s that, but I also do general charters.

John:
Okay, what’s the behind the scene stuff that we don’t really see as passengers, to make sure the coach goes from point A to point B seamlessly?

Trevor:
There’s a whole process, It’s a big team effort. There are sales, who have to get the information right to start with, and they pass it on to logistics, who then parcel it out to the drivers. They’ll also allocate the buses to the drivers. Then there’s us, who have to interpret the information and deal with the little incidents that crop up along the way.

John:
What kind of charters do you like doing the most?

Trevor:
It’s easy, theme parks. Theme parks, beach runs, and I got an opportunity to drive the State of Origin team.

John:
Awesome, thank you so much for the time. Enjoy the rest of your day, Appreciate it.

Trevor:
You’re very welcome.