Travelstar European cleans up at national awards ceremony
A Walsall coach company has picked up four awards from National Express for upholding exceptional standards.
Travelstar European, which runs coach services from Walsall on behalf of National Express, picked up the national awards for best fleet, operator of the year (11-20 vehicles), engineer of the year and the Go Green award for its environmental credentials.
The family-run firm, based on Portland Street, carried almost 140,000 customers in 2021 and scored zero faults across the 29 vehicle audits that are undertaken in order to benchmark coach operators against the awards criteria.
Travelstar beat off competition from coach operators around the UK to be crowned best fleet. The award, which was sponsored by driver monitoring technology firm, Seeing Machines, rewards excellence in everything from vehicle condition to legal and contractual compliance.
The coveted engineer of the year award went to Asan Fazal, who was chosen from three finalists to be honoured for his commitment to delivering excellence and proactively developing best practice for National Express.
National Express also awarded Travelstar with a ‘Golden Spanner’ for its high performance during an annual engineering audit and a gong for sustained high achievement for the 12th year running.
During the audit, inspectors scored the company’s engineering standards according to a traffic light system: red equalling very poor, amber requiring improvement in specific areas, green is good and gold is exceptional. Random vehicle inspections were also undertaken across its fleet of coaches.
National Express coach service delivery director Ed Rickard said: “We are thrilled to see Travelstar European recognised with four awards this year. It is testament to their diligence and hard work that they are delivering such fantastic results across the board. Travelstar has also been instrumental in supporting National Express in our return to full service in the region, post-pandemic.
“As a business we are committed to delivering excellence for our customers, which means upholding stringent standards and testing including among our partner operators. Travelstar came up with the goods consistently and on behalf of National Express, I congratulate them on a job exceedingly well done."
