Stuart Keith

Said the following about David Kipling:

“David Kipling joined the Driver Management Team in July 2015, from the outset he was quick to help and dedicated to the overall success of the management team. This momentum has not dropped and he has proven himself to be an invaluable asset to the depot, introducing and leading a number of new systems of working that have seen major improvements in the reporting and overall performance on depot KPI’s. These improvements can be listed as:

1. Reducing Trainee Driver passout hours. This is with an increased number of trainees and a reducing number of DI’s. With his very robust management of trainees at the depot and paying close attention to their individual needs, we have managed to reduce the average number of days to pass out a trainee from 388 to 168 days and the average number of hours from 388 to 268 hours between January 2015 to June 2016.

2. DI workshops. Not only reducing the number of hours that a trainee driver requires to passout but also working to improve the quality of tuition through DI workshops. Allowing an opportunity for Bristol DI’s to discuss in forum together on best practice, as well as suggesting improvements to the company’s standards to make them more practical and beneficial to the end user.

3. Tracking and reporting of route learning. As Regional Training Champion, Dave has introduced targets and new measurement criteria to have a greater understanding of successes, so they can be learnt from, and failures so they may be mitigated. Also allows an element of forecasting.

4. Pre-departure check system so as to track and normalise the raw data collected. Understand trends of at risk drivers at risk times and ensure visibility to entire regional management team to encourage best practice and lessons learnt. This resulted in several drivers being identified as having the wrong diagram potentially preventing incidents occurring.

5. Safety Alert System that he developed and rolled out which was to plug the gap that allowed front line staff to report issues, anonymously if they wished, and the manager would provide feedback on a monthly basis or to the individual. This has allowed drivers to report low level issues to their managers and receive feedback.

David embodies the values of GWR and happy to support cross-function departments when things are difficult, from lending a hand in special events to liaising with customers as a result of engineering possessions at remote stations. He is a credit to me as his manager, the team and GWR and will undoubtedly push to compound his achievements into the future.“