Travelling on our services
Lothian aim to deliver a high standard of service which is accessible to all and we will make every effort to accommodate the needs of our customers as set out in our Conditions of Carriage.
Our buses are for everyone. Those with accessibility requirements, regular commuters, tourists and visitors, the elderly, the very young, and everyone in between.
We know how important our services are for those who rely on them, and it is therefore vital that both our colleagues and vehicles are respected by those who travel with us for the benefit of everyone.
In short, our message is: Our Services. Your Choice. Everyone’s Journey.
We have noticed an increase in the number of customers attempting to smoke or vape on our buses. Smoking has been banned on our buses for decades, and vaping has never been permitted.
Our buses are smoke-free and vape-free environments for the comfort of all our customers.
Vaping or smoking on our vehicles is strictly prohibited. Don’t spoil Everyone’s Journey.
Our buses can be places to tune out from the world for a spell – listening to music, scrolling on social media, or calling a loved one on the way home can be a way to relax or connect with others.
Not everyone else wants to be part of this experience, though.
Our buses are comfortable and peaceful. Please don’t blast music from your phone or take loud speakerphone calls. Help us make Everyone’s Journey more comfortable.
We pride ourselves on providing accessible and inclusive bus services for those who rely on us.
All buses have accessible spaces for those who need them (remember, not all disabilities are visible!).
If you don’t require the accessible space or priority seating, please leave them vacant for those who do. Accessibility is important for Everyone’s Journey.
In communication with our teams
Our people have the right to be treated with dignity and respect. Lothian will not enter into communication where a customer raises issues which are not within the scope of Lothian to investigate.
Download our Code of Customer Conduct or view the menus below for further information.
Positive feedback means a lot to us and if you have received great service then we want to hear from you! Please tell us about any example of good customer service from one of our colleagues by clicking on our commendation button and giving us some details.
If something isn’t quite right or we get something wrong then we’d like to know. The best way to contact us is through our Customer Support team and filling out our online form which is available on our Help Centre.
We aim to handle customer communication quickly, effectively and in a fair and honest way. We take all feedback seriously and use valuable information from investigations to help us to improve the services that we deliver. We treat all communication in the strictest of confidence.
It helps us to deal with your feedback more quickly if you can provide us with as much information as possible when you first contact us.
If you are making reference to a specific incident that has happened when you were travelling with us, try give us as much information as possible. Please tell us the date, time, service number, direction of travel, registration number or fleet number. The fleet number of the bus can be found on printed tickets or on the outside of the bus — usually above the front door and on the rear and the front.
Please do not take photographs/recordings of our colleagues without their permission. If you do have any images or recordings that are relevant to your feedback, such as tickets or bus details, then please send them to us along with your comments and we will do anything we can to resolve your issue.
The best way to contact us is through our Customer Support team.
When you first contact us, please try to give us as much information as possible to helps us to respond to you more quickly. You can also visit one of our Travel Hubs to make contact in person. Find your nearest TravelHub.
If you contact us via one of our social media channels, our team will try to assist with your enquiry in the first instance. On some occasions it may be necessary for your enquiry to be to be passed on to our Customer Support team. If that is the case, we may ask you to fill out the online form by visiting the Help Centre.
Our Customer Support team record each piece of customer feedback and have the discretion and authority to investigate and respond to all customer contacts.
- We aim to acknowledge receipt of all customer contacts within 3 working days
- We aim to respond in full to all complaints within 15 working days
In some instances, a member of the Customer Support team may advise you that they have instructed a full investigation. This may involve a review of CCTV footage where available to better understand the circumstances around what’s happened. The colleague responsible for the investigation will have the authority and experience relevant to the area of business to deal with
the issues raised in the complaint.
Whilst we take all feedback seriously and use valuable information from any investigation to help us to improve the service, please remember our colleagues have a right to privacy too. We will never disclose any colleague details or provide you with specific information as to any action which may be taken as a consequence of customer feedback.
Please contact us as soon as you can after the date on which the event occurred or came to your notice. This gives us the best chance to fully investigate what has happened.
All of our vehicles have CCTV footage including audio (at the driver’s cab) which allows us to better understand the facts.
If you contact us more than one week after the date of the incident, we may not be able to obtain CCTV footage which supports with our investigations. However, it may still be possible to investigate the complaint effectively and fairly.
- Your personal data will always be treated as confidential
- We will only collect the information we might need to help us to look into any issue you raise with us
- We value all feedback and use it anonymously to better inform our wider business for training and commercial purposes
View our full Privacy and Data Protection policy.
Please remember our colleagues have a right to privacy too — we will never disclose any colleague details or provide you with specific information as to any action which may be taken as a consequence of customer feedback.
Lothian have a dedicated accessibility channel. We treat our customers as individuals and value all feedback.
Customers who encounter accessibility issues or require additional support with journey planning or any aspect of travel with us, can contact us through our dedicated accessibility team via email [email protected] and/or our Customer Support team through our Help Centre.
Lothian Buses is not responsible for any items left on our vehicles but if you do lose something on our buses, we will try our best to reunite you with your property.
If your item is lost, please be aware that it can take up to 3 days for Lost Property department to receive your item if it is found therefore, we cannot respond immediately to enquiries.
Please be aware our team cannot contact buses directly.
If you have lost an item, please fill in the online form providing as much information as possible as this will assist in identifying your property.
We will not confirm if we have your item until it reaches our Lost Property department as we must ascertain the item is definitely your property. We may ask additional security questions to confirm this is your item.
Please do not travel to Shandwick Place TravelHub until we have confirmed we have your item.
Collection is by appointment only; this is to ensure the item is available at Shandwick Place TravelHub.
All items are kept for 4 weeks and if not collected are then are securely disposed of. If you have an item to collect and are unable to make your appointment, please get back in touch to rearrange as we may not be able to keep your item beyond the 4 weeks.
If you visit the TravelHub prior to filling out the online form please be aware we may not have the item and would ask you be respectful to the staff on duty.
We are unable to request CCTV footage for lost items, if you think the item was stolen, we would advise contacting Police Scotland.
We keep your found items safe and securely.
Sometimes the behaviour or actions of customers using our service can make it difficult for us to deal with their issue or complaint.
We reserve the right to take further action against any individual who incites violence against any of our colleagues.
Unacceptable actions are grouped under the following headings with further details below:
- Aggressive or abusive behaviour/language
- Unreasonable demands
- Unreasonable levels of contact
- Unreasonable use of the complaints process
- Derogatory comments
- The use of profanity
- Personal and insulting remarks
Aggressive or abusive behaviour
Violence or abuse is not restricted to physical harm. It also includes behaviour or language, verbal or in writing, that may cause colleagues to feel afraid, threatened or abused. This includes threats, personal verbal abuse, offensive remarks, rudeness or the publication of photography or film footage with malicious intent.
We work in partnership with Police Scotland and will report any aggressive or abusive behaviour to our Transport Liaison Officer within Police Scotland for further consideration and investigation.
Unreasonable demands
A demand becomes unacceptable when it starts to, or would start to, impact greatly on our work and provision of services. For example, if the demand takes up an excessive amount of colleague time which results in other customers being disadvantaged. Examples of unreasonable demands include:
- Repeatedly demanding responses within an unreasonable timescale
- Insisting on seeing someone or speaking to a particular colleague when that is not possible
- Repeatedly changing the substance of a complaint or raising unrelated concerns
- We can’t request multiple pieces of CCTV footage which is why we require specific incident details at the time of contact
- Refusal to accept the outcome of an investigation
Unreasonable levels of contact
The volume and duration of contact made to us by an individual can sometimes cause problems. This can occur over a short period, such as a number of contacts in one day, or it may occur over the lifespan of the complaint or issue.
Examples of unreasonable levels of contact include:
- The customer making long telephone calls to us
- The customer inundating us with copies of information which have been sent to us already or which are irrelevant to the complaint or issue
We consider that contact has become unacceptable when the amount of time dealing with it impacts on our ability to deal with that complaint or issue, or impacts on the service we provide to other customers. Contact time may involve time spent talking to a customer on the phone; responding to and reviewing emails; or written correspondence.
Unreasonable use of the complaints procedure
Customers have the right to contact us about our services through a range of means. They also have the right to contact us more than once.
We consider unreasonable use of the complaints procedure to be:
- When repeated complaints result in the harassment of our colleagues, or
- The repeated complaints prevent us from pursuing a legitimate aim or from implementing a legitimate decision
The Communications Director has overall responsibility for ensuring that all customer contacts are handled in a fair, transparent and consistent way.
Lothian is committed to delivering an excellent standard of service for all of our customers.
If for any reason after contacting us you are not satisfied with the way we have dealt with your feedback you can write to:
Bus Users UK, 22 Greencoat Place, London SW1P 1PR
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://bususers.org/contact-us/