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.