About
Belle Vue, is a bus and coach hire company that operates 80 vehicles across the UK and Europe. Boss Phil Hitchen says they’re “An award winning business that’s quality branded twice for our standards. Right now, we’re partnering with a company called Flixbus to build the largest coach intercity express service across the United Kingdom.” Their ambitious goal is “to create a transport service by road that is safer, cleaner and greener.”
The Challenge
As a large-scale transport operation, Belle Vue faces significant technological challenges daily. They rely heavily on IT and telecoms infrastructure to manage their fleet, communicate with drivers across the country, and ensure everything runs smoothly. Phil emphasises the critical nature of their systems: “Everything’s run off computers, software, now compliance systems, tracking systems.”
The Solution
Belle Vue has been working with Blue Box for about nine years, using both their IT and telecoms services. For telecoms, Phil says they offer “Competitive prices, deals that are suitable for our requirements.”
On the IT side, Blue Box has a proactive strategy. Phil explains, “Rather than sort of looking to fix things constantly, they’d look at doing an overall plan for a year or two.”
This approach is the same as Belle Vue’s own preventive maintenance strategy for their coach fleet. As Phil puts it, “We do preventive maintenance on our coach fleet, which means the coaches are running, they’re not breaking down. It’s very much the same with the computers.”
The Outcome
Working with Blue Box has meant the reliability of Belle Vue’s infrastructure has improved significantly. Phil emphasises, “Our coaches turn up on time every time, day in, day out.”
This reliability extends to their IT systems as well. Communication has become seamless, with Phil saying, “I don’t have a handset with a mobile, with a telephone anymore. All our phone systems run off my phone no matter where I am in the world, which is absolutely fantastic.” The infrastructure improvements have supported company growth. Phil notes, “The infrastructure that’s brought has helped us grow the business.”
Moreover, Blue Box doesn’t just fix issues; they prevent them. Phil appreciates that “they always come not only to fix the problem, but to enhance it so it could never happen again.”
Advice for Others
Phil has a unique perspective on the value Blue Box provides, using a restaurant analogy. He positions Blue Box as a high-quality, mid-range option: “We get more than what we pay for, in my opinion.”
He advises potential clients to look beyond just the price: “We can always get a cheaper price. You know, somebody can always do a line cheaper, computer cheaper, the service cheaper.” He goes on to explain that while Blue Box might not be the cheapest option, the value they provide in terms of service, reliability, and business impact far outweighs the cost.
Phil concludes, “If you’re a small enterprise tight on pennies, you might be looking at the pennies. But I just see, as an investment, it just works for us.”