Accessible Away Travel - Help Needed !!

[weper red]

Originally Posted by el poncho

Just looking through the whole thread.

Theres been donation offers (crowdfunding) totalling £150 to date from Fieldtown, East Sussex Red and myself.

Thats a pretty good start.

I will put £20 in as well

[Official DLO]

Originally Posted by el poncho

Just looking through the whole thread.

Theres been donation offers (crowdfunding) totalling £150 to date from Fieldtown, East Sussex Red and myself.

Thats a pretty good start.

Thank you so much for all the discussions and ideas this post is generating, and especially for the very kind offers of payments, It is simply overwhelming, that people are offering money to help this cause.

However, the reason I am so reluctant yet to start excepting money from people is I still don't think it can work in the long term getting this service up and running without everyone on the minibus paying. As that will still only be 8 people paying to start with, where as the official coach travel has a large amount of people paying to go on away travel, which helps immensely in providing the service they can offer. We felt the fairest way was to bring it in line with Wrexham AFC official travel and charge accordingly, but that means even with 4 Wheelchair users and 4 carers it just doesn't add up, so there was always going to be a lose to run this service, and very kindly Geoff Scott has offered to pick up this for this season, so if now we run it on only 4 wheelchair users paying we are going to be running at a massive lose and we simply can't do that. If this year we get this service up and running and it's the great success I think it will be, then obviously next year we want it to become a bigger and better service and offer more away travel, but then you get back to the 11.000 price for the season and even with every carer paying as well as wheelchair users on this service it still only brings in approx £5.000 of the costings and I was prepared to spend the next 12 months doing fundraisers etc to raise the money to make up the huge difference and this is where I could then start taking up the kind offers of donations from RP members to go into the pot, but surely anyone doesn't think that would be possible if only 4 wheelchair users pay for the travel because then we only would be getting in approx 2500 of the 11.000 cost. I'm working hard on this and I'm very passionate about it, but even I can't perform miracles !! So in a way I'd rather not start it at all, if long term we can't make this service work as it would be awful to start something and then have to stop it again. To make this work long term it's going to take a huge commitment from me, and I'm going to spend the rest of my time always raising money for the season ahead.

I have spoken to quite a few wheelchair users recently to gauge interest and each and every person I spoke to didn't have an issue with carers paying, including a wheelchair user who got in touch with me last night since posting this to say he would be more than happy to pay for himself and his carer would also be happy to pay, so it seem very divided on opinion.

The upshot is to provide this service long term we have a chance of making a success of it if all 8 people on a bus pay their way but on 4 paying passengers the sums will just never add up and we won't be able to provide this service. I, as a lot of people now know am a wheelchair user myself and in an ideal world I personally would love to offer this service without carers having to pay, but it's simply not viable I'm afraid.

[Haruki]

would we have more chance at fundraising to buy our own bus rather than trying to find a way to fund hiring one for away games? Maybe there would be match funding grants available to purchase transport plus the opportunities to put some sponsorship logo's on the bus ?

[noisy1]

Originally Posted by Haruki

would we have more chance at fundraising to buy our own bus rather than trying to find a way to fund hiring one for away games? Maybe there would be match funding grants available to purchase transport plus the opportunities to put some sponsorship logo's on the bus ?

If they are that difficult to hire, then perhaps we could hire it out at a "reasonable rate" to help recoup funds.

[Welsh Kiwi]

That seems to be a great idea from Haruki and Noisy1.

Ownership is always better than hire. If it can be used for various functions. And with the sponsorship opportunities it provides with branding on bus.

Do you think it could be feasible DLO ?

[WrexhamO]

Wrexham Inclusion are in the midst of buying an accessible mini bus and I am sure they would offer advice to the club.
They availed of a big chunk of funding as a charity.

[Official DLO]

Originally Posted by el poncho

That seems to be a great idea from Haruki and Noisy1.

Ownership is always better than hire. If it can be used for various functions. And with the sponsorship opportunities it provides with branding on bus.

Do you think it could be feasible DLO ?

Thank you El Poncho, and a very valid question about purchasing our own vehicle. However , I have extensively looked into all these options. I looked into purchasing one ourselves but it would be at a massive cost and then would sit empty apart from 23 games a season. You can't drive it on a normal licence because of paying passengers you would need a PSV, then you would need business insurance, liability Insurance, fuel, Someone who is trained to anchor the wheelchairs etc etc, so I totally agree with your thoughts, but sadly it's not that simple !! It would be far more simple if we could run the service with a company responsible for all those things and we just pay for their service, just like how it works for Pats Coaches on the official coach travel.

[Quay Red]

Originally Posted by Official DLO

Thank you El Poncho, and a very valid question about purchasing our own vehicle. However , I have extensively looked into all these options. I looked into purchasing one ourselves but it would be at a massive cost and then would sit empty apart from 23 games a season. You can't drive it on a normal licence because of paying passengers you would need a PSV, then you would need business insurance, liability Insurance, fuel, Someone who is trained to anchor the wheelchairs etc etc, so I totally agree with your thoughts, but sadly it's not that simple !! It would be far more simple if we could run the service with a company responsible for all those things and we just pay for their service, just like how it works for Pats Coaches on the official coach travel.

I'm sure there are ways around this. Free travel but at a cost of a membership subscription may get around the PSV license. Training to tie down wheelchairs must be rather simple and logical. if the passengers aren't paying (first point) then you are not running a business and may only need ordinary insurance.. You can use a normal licence if you carry only 8.?
There is some speculation in the above but it may give room for thought.

[Welsh Kiwi]

Thanks DLO,

I can see its not simple to resolve and the best solutions can often come out of the biggest challenges.

In addition to Quay Red's helpful thoughts of possible ways around it, if as WrexhamO has mentioned - Wrexham Inclusion FC are currently in the midst of purchasing an Accessible bus, it would seem well worth speaking to them?