Open Letter on behalf of the coach, minibus and taxi industries to UK Leaders

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

Like many sectors, private transport businesses up and down the land have adjusted to the new realities of Britain under lockdown owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

In these extraordinary times, our collective response has been to echo one of the world’s great political leaders and ask not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country.

We have all seen the pictures of over-crowded London Underground services as key workers in NHS, food and construction are forced to break social distancing rules in order to do the jobs the nation needs them to do to pull us through the current situation.

The Coach, Minibus and Taxi industry are in a unique position to help.

As Transport2, owners of UK leading coach transport brands CoachHire.com and Kura, we have requested the support of other private transport operators and industry bodies to highlight the benefits we can offer.

The undersigned parties to this letter represent more than 25 thousand vehicles and drivers and we commit to working together as one industry to help provide an unrivalled transport offer for key workers of the nation.

In Britain today, we have a fleet of many thousands of vehicles sitting idle whilst people are putting themselves at risk using overcrowded London underground, bus and rail services.

These vehicles are designed to transport 1-100 people and can do so while implementing the necessary social distancing policies.

We estimate that within 48 hours, we can mobilise vehicles and drivers to provide 80 – 100 thousand concurrent key worker journeys in an entirely safe manner, reducing the possibility of the spread of the virus and protecting the NHS in the process.

These would provide a vital supplement to existing London transport services and come at a time of growing need particularly given the high numbers of NHS volunteers recently recruited who at present are being asked to drive themselves and patients, rather than relying on professionally trained drivers.

These journeys would use the same tried and tested tactics employed when transferring British citizens to quarantine locations at the very start of the UK outbreak.

As an industry we have already made representations, but we don’t believe our message has hit home. We ask that you do everything in your power to alert those with the authority to change the shape of public transport provision and engage with us to assist at this time of national crisis.

We stand ready to do everything we can to help and hope you see the value in what we are offering.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Mathew Hassell                                                                           

CEO
Transport2

                                                         

Steve Whiteway 

 President
Confederation of Passenger Transport

 

Duncan Burgess

Managing Director

GETT

 

For more information on how the Transport2 Group can help Key Workers call 020 3397 4460 or email [email protected]