Hundreds of delegates gathered at the BusNSW Member Conference last week to share solutions
The glitz and glam of the New South Wales (NSW) bus industry was on show at the annual conference recently, with members turning out to discuss important industry issues.
The 2016 BusNSW Member Conference was held at Novotel Wollongong Northbeach on April 13 and 14.
About 136 people attended the closed Regional and Rural Contract Workshop, while over 200 people attended the conference and Conference Dinner.
The theme of the conference was ‘sharing solutions,’ and also an opportunity to acknowledge the associations’ anniversary of 75 years – with an event to be held later in the year.
The conference saw delegates updated on current contract negotiations, as well as an announcement the annual bus show will eventually be moved to a bi-annual event.
NSW Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance was one of the keynote speakers and praised industry for their recent performance.
He presented recent Transport for NSW statistics, highlighting customer satisfaction which has increased to 88 per cent overall.
“That’s an incredible change in customer satisfaction in such a short amount of time,” he says,
“That’s an achievement everyone should be proud of.”
BusNSW executive director Darryl Mellish gave members an update on the work the association has done to date.
He was extremely pleased with the topics discussed by keynote speakers and the relevance to the local industry.
“There was a wide range of topics we’ve discussed – some controversial – including the maximum age of buses and on-time running affecting customer service,” he says.
Bus Industry Confederation’s Steve Heanes addressed delegates on behalf of executive director Michael Apps.
He says the suppliers of the confederation agree it will be of benefit to condense the annual bus show to a bi-annual event, following the next planned show in Queensland in 2017.
“It will give us a lot more professional approach and appearance. We will attract a lot more international visitors.”
Supplier members will commence discussion with state associations regarding the format shorty, says Heanes.
Delegates finished the conference with a glamorous Hollywood-themed dinner.