Southeastern railways

A key operator of commuter and regional services in South East London and Kent and parts of East Sussex, OUTCO delivers a highly performing 24/7 winter gritting
and snow clearance service to Southeastern’s sites each winter season.

Contract Duration and Performance

We have worked with Southeastern under contract since November 2018. In 2019 we delivered exceptional sustained performance, attending 100% of sites within time, with zero inspection failures.

• Gritting visits: 2018/19 – 2,950
• Snow Clearance: 2018/19 – 30

A suite of performance reports is emailed daily to Southeastern staff to review performance against set KPIs. In the morning we provide pre-inspection work schedules per site for the day/night, with post-activation reports confirming attendance for the shift completed. Monthly summaries detail our performance including daily activation temperatures.

Tailored Service Delivery

We have tailored our service by activating visits on a 0 degrees Celsius red warning. This is where surface temperatures fall to or below freezing with ice and/or hoar frost and/or snow accumulations and/or freezing rain is likely. Operators are expected to go the extra mile and notify Southeastern when we encounter anything unusual onsite – a Service Issue Notification. This can include damaged lighting and suspicious activity. In these situations, our operators contact the police in the first instance and notify Southeastern staff so they are aware of the issues as soon as possible. All notifications are emailed to client staff, following receipt of the operators’ report recorded on their smartphone.

Sites and Scope of Services

We service 80 sites covering 279,680m2. This encompasses rail station car parks, passenger platforms, pathways and overbridges, delivering a full scope of works:

• Mechanical gritting of car parks with white marine salt
• Manual gritting of pathways with white marine salt
• De-icing of platforms and overbridges using low corrosive solution Procoat
• Mechanical and manual snow clearance – snow is ploughed during our activated visit, where 5cm+ is forecast to fall between 1200-0600, or under a call-out order

Directly Employed Teams

We directly employ a team of eight highly trained winter operators, with additional operators called on should sustained severe weather conditions occur. All operators are locally-based across the counties to deliver a highly responsive service, working in four two-man teams. The operational team is managed by our regional director and his assistant regional managers, based out of our Redhill yard and 203 salt sites spread across the UK. Our dedicated account manager and 24/7 helpdesk assists Southeastern staff should they wish to ask questions or request a call-out visit.

Service Window

A seven day service is operated between November and March, with activated visits undertaken between a 1600 hours – 0600 hours window. Call-out requests are also undertaken as and when requested.