Let me be honest - I hit real panic mode earlier. Recent pleas for drivers for First & Last Mile hasn't yielded much concrete interest and then we hit a real stumbling block this week especially Friday with lack of drivers. Just everything seemed to conspire against us being able to deliver any service. And whilst we might, at worst case, stand down say our lunchtime duty, not being able to take students to/from Bartholomew School is simply not acceptable.
To resolve this we have, for the first time, hired an agency driver. This costs (as you might imagine) a lot more. So we cannot repeat this kind of hire too many times. So please if you know of any confident driver with a D1 on their licence with some spare time on their hands then please encourage them to do some driving for us.
We always need new drivers - A pool of volunteers often with no regular commitment - A pool of people paid for filling in the odd duty (possibly coming from further afield) and - A small group of dedicated drivers for regular duties. You might just drive one duty a month, or one a week. We even have one person who drives just at the New Year and summer months!
Anyway I hope this doesn't sound too much like a moan. Without new people coming forward, we simply will not be able to keep the service going with its faultless record.
Thanks for reading.
Andy.