Occupation: Marketing and Communications Officer at Stagecoach West Scotland

Rachel has always used the bus, whether it is to get to work or on holiday with her family. Her favourite hobby is spending time with her children, who also love the bus!

In her work, Rachel ensures community engagement. She and her team promote events to bring joy, fun and the best experiences to the people who use the bus.

Rachel’s story and why she loves the bus:

“Life is much easier with the bus. Buses are safer, quicker and help you save money, especially with children who have free bus pass”.

“Our team does many different types of activities for community involvement and engagement. We run recruitment events and Open Top Bus events like during Scottish Bus Week with #lovemybus. We also attend Freshers events and work a lot with charities.

We want to communicate with our customers, with joy and fun. This makes everything much easier. Being able to have fun together with them, is the most rewarding thing we have, and we have a lot of that especially at Christmas.”

A brilliant bus story…

“Over the Christmas season last year, we handed out Advent Calendars to people at bus stops and organised a big event with a bus all decorated with Santa’s Grotto.

We had drivers who dressed up as elves and one of the drivers was Santa. It was the first time after Covid that a lot of kids were seeing Santa. They were very happy. We had some restrictions and cautions, but still managed to deliver a fun and meaningful event for the community. We were also able to help local charities with donations, for example.

On the bus, we also had snow falling, snowballs. That kind of touch that makes all the difference. The kids could take pictures and spend time talking to Santa. Our drivers’ kids went there too and had a great time. It was very special. You could see that that moment made all those people’s day.

This is what makes my job rewarding”.