NO PLANES, SOME TRAINS & QUITE A LOT OF AUTOMOBILES:A User’s Guide to how the Wheels on our Buses Go Round and Round...

THE TRANSPORTER We are The Transporters – any excuse to get the link in

to the title. Social trips, conferences, events, sports fixtures, or

tournaments, the complexities and delights of our transport systems will have been engrained in your weary hearts by next May and it all starts here.

So, here is the mode and the means of getting you guys where you need to be...

CARS If your transport drug of choice is the motorised vehicle we

all affectionately know as The Car then here’s what you need to know.

We need a photocopy of your Certificate of Motor Insurance, your MOT certificate & your Driving Licence to keep on file.

Once we have these documents you can then claim back your fuel costs from the sports/societies account.

You will need a fuel receipt from your journey and then complete a Paying Out Form – which needs to be countersigned by your Treasurer. This is handed in at the office for us to verify and you can claim cash from the shop downstairs up to £100. A cheque will take 3 days to process and collect. Sometimes we are able to sign requests there and then but if we are too busy we will sign them off on that day wherever possible and put them into your lockers outside the office for collection.

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN If your journey is to be undertaken by train, here’s what you

need to do. Again you need to keep your receipts for this - the main

payment receipt with any tickets you retain - and bring it attached to a Paying Out Form, again signed by your Treasurer to the office. The same rules apply in terms of claiming the cash back.

When booking train travel, you may want to check with the operator for group discounts depending on the line and area you’re using. With the help of a few strangers you can keep your costs down. Apologies for the tenuous link back to the title.

THE MIDAS TOUCH If your chosen mode of transport for your society or club is minibuses –

then to drive these you need to be qualified under the MIDAS scheme The first step is to bring in your card and paper driving licence and get

these photocopied at the Welcome Centre downstairs. You need to pay a £10 deposit, which you will get back after 3 completed drives

You will need to bring these copies up to the office for us to keep on file and we will keep hold of your receipt from now on.

There is one more form to fill in with some general details, then we will book you in for a 2 hour theory test

After this theory test, Lee Mason – MIDAS Instructor - will book you in for your driving test – the rest is down to you

Upon passing these tests you will be able to use our minibuses. You will need your card and MIDAS number to book them out from the office. Upon every journey where you intend to drive you need a signature from this office to keep a record of the three drives to claim back your deposit

After 3 completed drives, you can fill in a Paying Out Form and attach your receipt & the details to claim back your £10 deposit

MEET TH

E MIN

IBUSES

Name: HX04 VYU Occupation:15 Seat MinibusBreed: Ford Transit 90 T350 Favourite Food: DieselFavourite Accessory: My Fuel Card. All the family has them.

MEET TH

E MIN

IBUSES

Name: YJ56 GFVOccupation: Wedding Planner – just kidding – 15 Seat MinibusBreed: LDV Maxus Favourite Food: DieselAddress: Parking bays in Ravelin –when we’re not at home, weirdoes stick stuff on us. I’ve been violated more times than I’d care to mention

MEET TH

E MIN

IBUSES

Name: HT53 FHCOccupation: 2 Seater VanBreed: Ford Transit Connect T200Favourite Food: DieselAddress: I can’t stand the others, so I live alone in Gun House Car Park

MEET TH

E MIN

IBUSES

Name: HN05 XJGOccupation: 9 Seat MinibusBreed: Ford Tourneo GLXFavourite Food: DieselMarital Status: Single – I’m the only 9 seat bus here

MEET TH

E MIN

IBUSES

Name: AE56 0EROccupation: 15 Seat Minibus, but I am also a transport model in my spare timeBreed: LDV MAXUSFavourite Food: DieselPet Hates: Bad singing, litter abuse and lingering smells

LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS If you want to book out any of our minibus family then

you need to speak to the minibus guardians, Tom or Jemma in the office.

The imaginatively titled Transport Booking Forms can be found just outside the office. They are pink.

Once the form is handed in to the office, we will allocate a vehicle. This will be done on a first come first served basis with our buses but once these are booked out you will then be allocated an external hire vehicle from SSD. Please note because of weight of new vehicles we will no longer be able to book 15 seat minibuses. Discussions are ongoing regarding 14 seat minibuses as we speak

Once booked we will send a confirmation email to your club/society address.

ON THE BUSES: UNION OWNED The keys for our vehicles can be picked up from the office

and will be handed over in a folder comprising...- 1 set of Keys with attached Fuel Card- 1 Log Booko When the pack is returned via the letterbox in Gun House

Car Park after use it should come back with the Log Book filled in and a fuel receipt from your trip

o All the vehicles need to be filled back to the top; refuelled with the cost of your journey – each vehicle should have a full tank when you get it and should come back that way

o The receipts will be taken from the folders the next day and the monies then charged to your club account. If receipts are not in the folder there will be a fine administered to cover the costs

RISKY BUS...INESS: SSD HIRE VEHICLES The same principles apply with picking up keys from the

office and treating the buses with respect. Fines for valeting and damage will be implemented where necessary

In the SSD Hire Vehicle Pack, there should be - 1 set of keys – no fuel card - Log Book - Pink Paying Out Form The receipt from the journey should be stapled to the Paying

Out Form and the details completed. The form needs to be handed in to the office or enclosed in the folder, after being signed off by your Treasurer

JURASSIC PARK...ING PERMITS We have access through SSD – Southern Self Drive to a

number of Minibuses and Vans. Due to parking reg’s these will need permits displayed in the window at all times when in the University Car Park or clubs will be fined £70 approx – each permit costs £2:40 per day and will be directly charged to each club. The permit is only usable for 1 day, so multiple dates can not be scratched off on one ticket

These permits will be handed out when you pick up minibus keys at the office. You will need to display these clearly in the front window. The parking attendants will not go quietly into the night if they can not see the full details, they are a vengeful bunch when at work, otherwise they’re pretty nice under all that angst. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that if it falls off the dashboard or is hidden under something else there will be no comeback...

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN It has recently come to our attention that some of the vehicles we hire

in for groups exceed the maximum weight limit our permits allow and so we will not be able to hire in 15 seat minibuses moving forward. 

The laws which allow us to operate vehicles state that the maximum weight of the vehicle when fully loaded is 3500kg, (4250kg if it is modified for wheelchair access) but most newer model vehicles of 15 seats exceed this. Our current fleet falls within this limit but most newer vehicles, unfortunately, do not. The largest newer vehicle we could realistically hire is now going to be 14 seats. Discussions are ongoing with SSD.

This will have an impact on how we operate hired transport moving forward, as well as the decisions we can make about replacing our own fleet vehicles. This needs to be shaped by what you think, as the users of transport and so we have put together a short questionnaire about some potential alternatives that we would like all groups and sports teams who use our transport to complete by Friday 17th May 2013.