Managers at the Diamond Bus Company are celebrating this week after winning four prestigious awards at the 2009 Passenger Transport Management Awards held in London last Friday.

Fighting tough competition from other bus, coach and rail giants in the industry, Managing Director Scott Dunn won Young Passenger Transport Professional of the Year, Commercial Manager Austin Birks won the award for Innovation and New Thinking, Marketing Manager John Everill was awarded second place in the Marketing award with Network Manager Trevor Hickinbottom being awarded the Unsung Hero award for 38 years of dedicated service in the transport industry.

To put these victories in perspective it’s worth noting that the Diamond Bus Company with just over 400 employees was competing head to head with the UK’s transport giants including First Group who employ 137,000 worldwide, Stagecoach, Arriva, Go-Ahead and National Express.  Therefore the scale of the success was significant.

Austin Birks said “these awards are testimony to the hard work, commitment and dedication shown day in, day out by the drivers, engineers and all the staff within the company – this is a team success and we are justifiably proud to put the Midlands in the national spotlight for positive reasons”.

Here's what the judges had to say about our winners:

Scott Dunn Managing Director The judges were very impressed indeed with Scott's track record and personal commitment – both to the businesses for which he works, but also to his own personal development, which led him to achieve both a first degree and then an MBA on a part-time basis. His work in turning round the operations that parent company Rotala acquired in 2008 from Go-Ahead Group is very impressive indeed – testified by the fact that his nomination for the award came from Centro, the West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority.

Austin Birks Commercial Manager In deciding to award the winners' prize to Kevin Short and Austin Birks, the judges were greatly impressed by the leadership being shown by two smaller enterprises in this vital field. The use of automatic vehicle location systems has been shown to improve the reliability of bus operations and the provision of real-time information via mobile phone and/or a dedicated web site offers a huge opportunity to reduce barriers to bus use and help achieve modal shift.

Trevor Hickinbottom Network Manager Trevor has worked in the bus industry in a variety of roles since joining as a bus conductor in 1971, rising to be a senior manager in the early success of competing small West Midlands operator Pete's Travel, where he has worked tirelessly through the various changes of ownership and organisation in the intervening years. He is now a senior manager with the Diamond Bus team, and PTMA is delighted to recognise his hard work and dedication to the bus industry over a 38 year period.

John Everill Marketing Manager The judges were enormously impressed by the work done by John Everill and his team in the rebranding and turning round the company during 2008 following its acquisition from Go-Ahead. His use of humour and style in the promotional material and a solid core of customer research have contributed to this high-profile and successful project.

Find out more about the Passenger Transport Management Awards