Coatham Coaches Secures Funding For Further Investment

We’ve always prioritised the consistency and reliability of our services, ensuring client satisfaction. Whether that’s through our driver training or vehicle care, our top goal is providing a high level of service.

Coatham Coaches is looking to continue this into the future, and is why we’ve made a statement of intent to invest £100,000 into new, cutting edge equipment. This investment will keep our fleet of coaches in top condition, allowing us to keep providing our fantastic service.

This opportunity has been made possible thanks to Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council and their business engagement team. They have helped us to source funding for this further investment, and ultimately, our next, exciting step.

Our director, Mark Hodgson, lays out just some of our plans for digitising the Coatham workshop: “After setting out our growth plans, and through discussions with David Hitchen and the council’s engagement team, we were able to secure valuable advice towards securing some substantial support necessary to take the project forward.

“It is our aim to be Teesside’s first coach operator to meet DVSA’s new Earned Recognition status. We have purchased state-of-the-art vehicle diagnostic equipment from Jaltest together with a suite of emissions, headlight and brake-testing equipment from Totalkare, which will help us meet and exceed compliance standards.

The DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) Earned Recognition scheme is a new way for companies that operate vehicle fleets to ensure and prove the organisation meets strict driver and vehicle standards.

We can achieve this accolade by regularly sharing key performance information with the DVSA. This includes information on driver hours and maintenance records, providing a transparent way of proving we’re meeting these standards.

“All of our driver data is digital, with our operations team continually monitoring compliance through software from Trutac.” Mark adds, “This is taken one step further with live driver hours information through our tracking software from Samsara.”

To accompany this, Coatham Coaches will be upgrading our back-office IT infrastructure so we can upload all maintenance information directly from the workshop.

Mark explains: “We want to provide assurances to our clients that we can demonstrate that our passengers’ safety is paramount.

“Our continual investment in our workshops, fleet and driver training will always be key to making sure we meet our stated objective: To get you there on time, or in your own time, in a comfortable, safe and sustainable way.”