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Transdev scrubs out vandals

Transdev Melbourne is on a mission to find a solution to its significant graffiti problem in 2017, starting with a clean up of its buses at Sunshine West

 

Teams of two were allocated graffiti wipes, solvent spray and rags or paint rollers. Moving methodically through the buses, a triage process was developed and once a bus was judged beyond cleaning it was tagged to be painted.

Transdev Melbourne managing director Harry Wijers says he wouldn’t be happy working in an environment that has been targeted by vandals, so he can understand that it has a big impact on the morale of drivers.

“I wanted to show the drivers that we understand the graffiti is ugly and demoralising and that we are prepared to do something about it,” he says.

“It had to be a Sunday — to make it work we needed to get as many defaced buses in the one place as possible and during the rest of the week most of them have to be on the road.

“I knew it was a big ask for people to give up part of their weekend, but in the end I believe it was worth it — we managed to clean 35 buses and paint 11.”

Area manager west Shaun Lawson has been tasked with finding workable solutions to the significant graffiti problem, starting with this recent graffiti blitz at the new Sunshine West depot.

The organisation is going to crack down on graffiti across its fleet this year and the clean-up day was the first of a number of planned initiatives which include a better equipped mobile response team and an app that identifies the tags of repeat offenders.

“It was fantastic to see how much pride staff from all levels of the business, take in the fleet,” Lawson says.

“After such a successful first event, we are definitely looking at running similar days at other depots and with what we learned from the first event, we will be able to work smarter and faster next time.”

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