Head of Buses at Modern Coast Express

Location: This role will be based in Nairobi, with respect to needs requirements in our various offices country-wide.

Reporting:Managing Director

Job Description

To head and control the bus operations division of the company to increase outreach, maintain and grow route profitability, while keeping the costs in control in a consistent and effective manner providing a fruitful association to customers and employees.

Qualifications

• Bachelors in Business Administration. Finance and Accounting knowledge would be preferred.
• Relevant Previous Experience:
• 7 years’ experience in managing fleet of 50 Vehicles, with last 3 years in a managerial capacity in a busy environment
• Business Understanding:
• Should understand
• Public transportation operations, NTSA Rules, Traffic Act laws and statutory requirements for operating PSV vehicles in East and Central Africa.
•  Financial management and budgeting, customer centric approach
• General maintenance of vehicles and operational costs
• Managing big teams- up to 100 staff, both skilled and unskilled labor
•  Cross border regulations and requirements on movement of passengers and cargo
• Optimum resource utilization
• Analysis of financial and bus operations data and reports for decision making.
•  Market trend and customer behavior trend understanding
• Proficient with MS Office- Word and excel tools
• Language proficiency English and Kiswahili
•  Understand numbers and analyze them
• Transport software knowledge
• People Management
• Planning & Execution
• Delegation & Control
• Risk Management
• Negotiation
• Sales & Marketing Skills
• Have a degree in business management or any other related field
•  Should have had atleast 3 years of supervisory experience in a busy logistics company
• Handled a team of more than 100 people
• Computer literate, good understanding of MS Office and Excel

Duties and responsibilities

• Booking Office Related:
  • Ensure all branch staff members are well trained to perform their duties, look, feel and service at all branch offices is standardized
  • Ensure all business permits and licenses renewals are timely done
  • Ensure all office operations are as per company guidelines
  • Come up with sales target and push branches to deliver them
  • Ensure all branches are adequately staffed with proper roasters
  • Control branch sales and expenses, ensure profitability
  • Ensure customers service standards are maintained- we deliver the promise
• Crew Related:
  • Ensure all crew are trained on health and safety while at work, and attend the required refresher courses quarterly
  • All crew to have first aid certificate in emergency aid and basic fire training annually
  • Ensure all crew members have the required documentation i.e. valid driver’s licenses, psv and good conduct
• Operations Related:
  • Develop the Bus Operations budget; monitor and control expenditures
  • Identify new markets for providing contract buses and any other transport deliverable (NGO , Corporates, Schools)
  • Identify and take corrective measures for bottlenecks setting back the team on reaching goals
  • Develop and supervise methods for dispatching vehicles as per the schedule and operators in such a way as to maximize cost-effectiveness and system productivity
• Routinely gathering, tabulating, and analyzing transit data
• Ensure all vehicles are operating with the required legal documents (Insurance, Inspection, TLB, Speed Governor)
• Projection and forecasting for all peak season in co-ordination with workshop and booking offices
• Ensure customer care handles all customer queries within 24 hours and directing investigations to verify and resolve customer complaints in and effective and satisfactory manner
• Ensure all Branches offices, vehicles are branded according to company branding guidelines
• Report on market and competitor activities and provide relevant reports on the trends and information for decision making. Develop delivery strategies to counter competition
• Interviewing, selecting, coaching, training, managing, and appraising the performance of bus operations personnel.
• Working closely with the maintenance/workshop department on bus operations related matters, ensuring off road days for vehicles is at minimum at all times. Controlling breakdown and keeping it low as per target
• Team Related:
• Set goals for team on time, aligned to business objectives
• Provide on the job mentoring and
• Identify training programs & developmental interventions to enable higher performance.
• Conduct regular performance reviews and give timely feedback.
• Connect and engage with team for higher motivation and retention.
• Discuss career aspirations and provide opportunities for growth.
• Ensure adequate staffing of team w.r.t. numbers and competence.

Typical Tasks (indicative but not exhaustive)

• Booking Office Related:
• Constant communication withregional managers to check on daily operations
• Devise, monitor and review sales target and incentives for branch staff
• Evaluate the customer complaints, devise methods to control complaints, work on process enhancements and communicate effectively to all stakeholders, including the customer service team
• Monitor and report, previous days sales and expenses from the system
• Approve any required expenses which need approval from HQ
• Ensure all booking offices have functional computers and comfortable lounges
• Analyze and submit reports with suggestions on improvement on weekly basis
• Daily camera viewing to randomly check on branch offices
• Crew Related:
• Check tracking reports on over speeding and driver operations matters
• Monitor Occurrence book and keep track on accident and incidents reports and monitoring – Identify causes and have controls in place to minimize and avoid at any cost
• Setting goals, performance reviews and mentoring conversations with the team discussing their progress
• Check & monitor the crew members working hours and off days
• Check driver scheduling data to for efficient scheduling of drivers and conductors
• Regular meeting with the crew to understand their challenges and help mitigate them
• Operations Related:
• Engage in customer retention program by monitoring travel card holders usage and enrollment
• Plan and devise customer sourcing strategies for business development to increase the customer base for the courier division
• Attending daily, weekly and monthly meeting with various departments to check on progress, bottle necks and mitigation measures
• Bus status updates of no of buses scheduled over no of buses off rotation
• Interdepartmental meeting for flow of information for smooth operations, to touch base on progress and discuss challenges
• Present to MD every month, the business review of courier division to discuss challenges, potential opportunities and or concerns for effective planning and growth of courier division