3 March 2025
Cody C.
By email: [FYI request #29767 email]
Dear Cody
Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (“LGOIMA”):
Request for Information
I refer to your email dated 16 January 2025 requesting information on penalties,
admonishments, warnings, or other actions taken by Environment Canterbury against
bus operators from 1 January 2022 to the present date. Specifically, you are requesting
the following information:
1. A detailed list of all penalties, admonishments, warnings, or other actions taken
by Environment Canterbury against bus operators.
• Include the date, nature, and reason for each penalty or action.
• Specify whether the penalty was financial, contractual, or otherwise.
• The specific reasons for these penalties or actions, broken down by
category, including but not limited to:
a) Service delivery failures (e.g., missed trips, late services, or
failure to meet schedule adherence requirements).
b) Breaches of safety regulations or operational standards.
c) Customer complaints leading to formal remedial actions.
d) Instances where the actions or omissions of bus operators
brought Environment Canterbury or the public transport
service into disrepute, such as public complaints, media
reports, or incidents resulting in reputational harm.
2. Copies of the relevant sections of contracts with bus operators outlining:
• Performance benchmarks and standards.
• Enforcement powers, including penalty clauses.
• Provisions related to reputational harm or misconduct.
Your request has been referred to me to reply.
As stated in our request for refinement, sent on 27 January 2025, our response
excludes day-to-day informal performance management communications. ‘Informal
communication’ would require the substantial collation and research through 25,000+
emails and we would therefore need to refuse this part based on section 17(f) of the
Local Government Official Information & Meetings Act 1987.
File Number: GOVE/INQU/OMBU/2993C
Below are our responses to your requests:
1. A Detailed List of all Penalties, Admonishments, Warnings, or Other Actions
Taken by Environment Canterbury against Bus Operators
See attached excel file – ‘Instance and Balance based KPI’s’
The first tab, named ‘Monitoring Database’, is the data from the software designed to
record our instance based Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). Instance based KPI’s
are defined within the contract and require Environment Canterbury to manually input
instances observed by either the Public Transport Operators or Environment
Canterbury into the Monitoring Database. Each issue then goes through a process of
investigation by both the Operator and Environment Canterbury to determine if there
is a contractual implication by way of an indiscretion/penalty or not.
The second tab, named ‘Excel missed trips’, contains all the missed trips that were not
entered into the Monitoring Database. Due to driver shortages across the country,
compounded with isolation timeframes when drivers were sick with COVID19 there
were many missed trips every day during an extended period. Recording these on a
spreadsheet was a more time effective method for keeping track. Therefore, the total
number of Instance Based KPI’s is the sum of the first two tabs.
Excel Instance and Balance Based KPI’s
Monitoring Database
380
Missed trips
36,417
Total
36,797
Given these missed trips were out of the Operator’s control they would not result in a
contractual indiscretion or penalty.
The third tab, named ‘Balanced Scorecard deductions’ (BSC deductions), details the
quarters that Public Transport Operators fell below the expected standard for the
balanced based KPI’s detailed in the contract and incurred a contract payment
deduction. These balanced based KPI results are derived via automated data
gathering (unlike the manual data gathering for instance based KPI’s described above)
and have an acceptable range where there are no contractual implications. Falling
outside of the accepted range can result in a contract payment bonus or deduction
depending on whether they are above or below the expected range. It is important to
note that the two Customer Satisfaction balance based KPI measures (mystery
shopper KPI’s) detailed in the contract were discontinued in June 2021.
File Number: GOVE/INQU/OMBU/2993C
See attached excel file - ‘Safety breaches in Complaints and Incidents DB’
The first tab, named ‘Feedback Database’, lists all complaints we have received that
we can easily identify as potentially falling below our operational safety standards.
These were notified to the appropriate Public Transport Operators for them to
investigate, respond to, and undertake any action if required. A list of the relevant
complaint types and their definitions are listed below:
Complaint type
Definition
Overloading
The bus is perceived to have too many people
onboard by the customer. Potential Health & Safety
issue
Not Stopping
The bus didn’t stop at all. Any other variations
shouldn’t be included under this sub-category.
Traffic Lights
The bus went through a red or late orange light.
Give Way Rules
The bus failed to give way at a roundabout,
intersection or T junction, failed to merge correctly,
failed to give way to pedestrians, failed to stop at a
STOP sign, or used incorrect lanes.
Pulling OUT from stops
As per the subtype name.
without giving way to cars
Unauthorised Stopping
The bus stopped on a Railway Crossing (marked as a
yellow cross box on the road), stopped in the middle
of an intersection, stopped on broken yellow lines, or
incorrectly parked at a stop.
Cyclists vs Buses
A cyclist was involved, such as dangerous overtaking
without giving the cyclist enough space. For example,
the driver may have been driving too close behind the
cyclist and didn’t wait for a clear path.
The second tab, named ‘Incident Database’ lists all incidents Environment Canterbury
or the Public Transport Operators have entered into the Incidents Database that we
can identify as falling below our operational safety standards. There are only three
incidents listed, and these relate exclusively to near miss road rule infringements.
There will be other incidents that fall below our operational standards, however the
categorisation options in our incidents database does not include who was at fault
(driver/member of the public).
It’s also important to note that the ‘Near miss - Road rule infringement’ incident
category only came into effect in July 2024 when we implemented a review of our
incident categories.
File Number: GOVE/INQU/OMBU/2993C
2. Copies of Relevant Sections of Contracts with Bus Operators
See attached relevant performance management sections of our Operator contracts.
•
‘Chch - UA_Performance Regime’
•
‘Timaru - Performance Regime’
Please note that confidential and commercially sensitive information has been
withheld pursuant to sections 7(2)(b) and 7(2)(c) of the LGOIMA.
You will be aware that if you are not satisfied with this response, you can refer this
matter to the Office of the Ombudsman under s27 (3) of the LGOIMA.
Should you require any further information or clarification, please do not hesitate to
contact [email address] in the first instance.
Yours sincerely,
Giles Southwell
Director Corporate and Public Transport Services
File Number: GOVE/INQU/OMBU/2993C
