Greater Manchester

Green light for better bus driving

First are proud to announce the installation of groundbreaking new technology across our entire UK fleet of 9,000 buses that will help improve driving styles and reduce the carbon footprint of our buses.

This move follows a successful trial of DriveGreen on 1,000 buses in London, Bradford (West Yorkshire) and Glasgow. Buses involved in the trial were fitted with the latest GPS technology that can detect dozens of driving movements per minute and immediately tells the driver know well they are driving.

All 784 buses in Greater Manchester will now be fitted with the technology over the next few months and First plans to have all its 9,000 buses across the UK fitted with the technology by the middle of 2010.

The equipment picks up on acceleration and braking patterns as well as corner, lane and speed handling. A traffic light LED monitor on vehicle dashboards flashes green if the driver is driving correctly, or amber or red if a bus driver carries out an unwanted driving manoeuvre such as heavy braking or unnecessary acceleration.

The driver can then make immediate changes to their driving to ensure buses travel more efficiently to produce fewer CO2 emissions as well as travelling more smoothly to improve the journey experience for passengers. For the passenger this means:


Green - the journey is smooth enough to read a newspaper

Amber - the passenger has to look up from their newspaper

Red - the passenger has to hold a handrail to steady themselves


On returning to bus depots, or even their own home, drivers can then view the overall quality of their drive on a dedicated computer page via the internet. A score is allocated to each driving session, therefore allowing them the opportunity to monitor, and then improve, their own driving to help play their part to tackle environmental issues.

First has trialled DriveGreen since March 2009 and is delighted to report that it has seen a 70% decrease in the number of unnecessary driving manoeuvres carried out by drivers. This in turn has led to a significant decrease in the levels of CO2 produced by buses. Each driver will use around 500 litres less fuel per year which equates to 1.2 tonnes less CO2.

First plans to rollout the technology to its entire fleet of 9,000 buses across the UK should see environmental benefits from Aberdeen to Bolton and from Manchester to Swansea. Within three years it is estimated that First buses will produce 130,000 less tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of removing 24,000 cars off the roads (source EPA*). This will help us achieve our climate change target to reduce CO2 emission levels in our entire UK Bus fleet by 25% by 2020 (on 2006 levels).

Andrew Scholey Managing Director for First in Manchester, said: "This is a significant step in our efforts to improve the comfort and safety of our bus services as well as making a real environmental difference to the world that we, and future generations, will live in.

The great thing about this project is that our drivers are the ones who can make a significant difference and they are real green champions. By using DriveGreen to change their driving habits - even just in a small way - the gains in terms of environmental efficiency are huge, as well as in areas such as the cost of fuel to the business (which means we can keep bus fares down), and the safety and comfort of our passengers.

This really empowers drivers to identify potential to improve their own driving style and play their part in helping to protect the environment for themselves and their children.

And to encourage drivers to use DriveGreen to help improve their driving style, weekly financial rewards will be awarded to the best and the most improved drivers in our company, achieving and maintain the highest standards of driving for the benefit of the environment and our passengers.'

Jimmy Burroughs, spokesman for the Unite Union, said: "This will improve the working environment of the drivers. Any system that is put in place that helps a driver to self-assess and improve is a benefit.'

The technology used is provided by GreenRoad, a US based company that originally was based in Israel and used the technology to help train young Israeli car drivers to drive more safely after requests by parents.




*The US Environmental Agency (EPA) hosts a carbon equivalent calculator. This can be found at. http://www.epa.gov/RDEE/energy-resources/calculator.html.