Phil Hibberd
Phil is an Engagement Manager in the Business Development and Engagement department. His area of expertise is freight.
What does your role involve?
It’s my role to understand the challenges and opportunities that our members face through engaging a wide range of people in senior roles, including those in health, safety, sustainability, engineering, and, of course, rail operations.
I look at organisations’ current performance and emerging trends, review what elements make up their strategy, and map these to RSSB products and services (P&S). If no existing P&S are available, I help them connect with the wider industry through working groups, industry committees, and projects to look for collaborative solutions.
I also encourage our members to use our commercial services, such as consultancy, to deliver organisation-specific solutions and training to embed our research, standards, and guidance and to drive continuous improvement across the broad scope of RSSB’s P&S.
In addition, I actively promote RSSB at events and on social media and encourage everyone in the industry—and those outside of rail—to sign up to wide range of RSSB e-news.
What brought you to RSSB?
After working in the rail freight sector for nearly 25 years—in engineering, operations, and health and safety roles—I was looking for a new challenge. I’d been working very closely with RSSB for a decade, sitting on industry committees, joining working groups, and sponsoring projects, so I had a reasonable understand of RSSB’s aims and objectives.
When the opportunity arose to apply for a job in the newly formed Engagement Team in 2017, I jumped at the opportunity to work with industry experts who shared my same passion and enthusiasm to create a better safer railway.
How can you help RSSB members?
As I’m now into my third decade working in the rail industry—with experience collaborating with passenger operators, freight firms, contractors, infrastructure owners, rolling stock operating companies, and the wider supply chain—I’ve got a broad, unique understanding of how the industry can work together to collaborate to create the best solutions to common problems the rail industry faces.
Is there anything else you’d like members to know?
In my spare time, I volunteer with the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), and I’m currently the Vice Chair of IOSH Railway Group, which supports an international community of rail health and safety practitioners.
I’m also passionate about educating those who don’t work in the rail industry about the dangers of the railway, particularly young people. I’ve been involved in a number of serious accidents on the railway involving children, and this has led me recently to become an ambassador for the ‘Rail Safe Friendly’ campaign.
