Belle Vue Manchester invests in safety on its private hire fleet

Stockport bus and coach operator, Belle Vue Manchester, is improving the safety of its passengers and drivers by investing in CCTV cameras across its private hire fleet.

The the project will see over 40 vehicles, including minibuses, single and double-decker coaches and Belle Vue’s collection of vintage buses, fitted with around £150,000 of equipment, which is being supplied and installed by Journeo. All of the company’s school buses are already fitted with CCTV cameras.

Belle Vue’s single-decker vehicles are being fitted with eight cameras – four internal and four external ones – with an additional four on the upper deck of each double-decker. Contracts manager George Baker, who is spearheading the project, said the company’s investment will help to reduce insurance claims as well as enhancing safety. He explained:

“We expect the programme to be completed in early 2024. The aim is to reduce insurance claims, improve passenger and driver safety and provide assistance with regards to lost property.

“We chose the Journeo system because it allows the remote download of camera footage which we can access wherever our vehicles are. As we provide national and international travel, this is imperative.

“The CCTV system connects to the Journeo Portal through the Journeo Edge unit installed in each vehicle, which provides a real-time map so that we can see where every vehicle is at any time.

“It also gives live information about the health status of the CCTV system, which means we can provide proactive maintenance to keep digital video recorders, monitors and cameras working at all times.

“Because footage can be downloaded remotely in our monitoring suite, it saves time and labour as we don’t have to send someone into the vehicle to retrieve it manually.

“Once on the portal, the operator is able to preview footage to ensure that an incident has been captured.

“This footage can then be downloaded on to our local server. The download package also includes the required playback software to allow the footage to be passed to insurers or police without them requiring additional software.”

Belle Vue Manchester is based at Discovery Park, Stockport, has a diverse and growing fleet which carries two million passengers a year across the UK and Europe. Its private hire fleet is used for express inter-city services in partnership with FlixBus, as well as for day trips and outings, UK and overseas tours, private functions, corporate and sports travel. The company is also the largest education transport provider in Greater Manchester.

Michael Rutherford, Journeo’s business development manager, said:

“From our very first discussion with Belle Vue, it was clear that the team had a forward-thinking attitude regarding future-proofing and standardising the CCTV systems in their fleet of vehicles. CCTV is not only a vital operational tool – it also gives passengers confidence in choosing to travel by bus.”

The Journeo Portal monitors over 12,000 transport vehicles across the UK and has supported customers to make well over 100,000 successful footage downloads since its release in 2019.