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DS: Risk Information; Off-Site Transport

Hello all,

A customer has brought an unacceptable case to our attention which involved a local company. There's useful underpinning items within at this time of peak off site visit activity:

Due to break down and the rest of the company's fleet being used on home to school transport, a school needed to make emergency calls and put out hurried communications to parent/carers, putting their own contingency in place for the pupils and staff to return from W-S-M when their coach didn't show. 

Not only did the company not let the school know there was a problem, but they had no plan to recover from the situation. They even stopped answering the phone. It was then found that there was no immediate capacity at other companies to assist. Reporting the matter to the Traffic Commissioner (TC) revealed the company licence has been revoked.

An important element of planning any trip involving transport is contingency in the event of a problem which, if a company is being booked, they should supply and be able to trigger at a moments notice. It looks too that a quick check on the TC web site would do no harm either: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/traffic-commissioners

All the best.

Bill

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