The Handy Bus Club is envisaged to support rural family carers and other similarly isolated people by providing better access to services in nearby towns by operating a scheduled minibus service along with the key innovation of a volunteer conductor known as a ‘Bus Buddy’ who assists the passengers with boarding, offers the opportunity of social interaction, provides transport and local activity information and who can act also as a courier to fulfil essential errands at the cost of a fare.
Another key feature is that the HBC model is passenger led. The schedules are determined by the club members according to their needs and resources. The HBC model enables communities to operate their own services - an ambition of the Big Society agenda - according to their needs in partnership with other local organisations and so are more flexible and agile and can respond more quickly to change in demand or resources and are less dependent on centralised management at county or district level.
By carrying both passengers and freight and addressing many of the barriers to the use of public transport, the Handy Bus can meet social needs which are otherwise unfulfilled or met by Good Neighbour schemes and similar volunteer groups. A partnership of an existing GNS and a Community Transport Operator has proven to be effective way to start a Handy Bus Club.
It is the combined revenue from carrying passengers, freight and providing social services that potentially achieves sustainability of transport provision where simple passenger services have not been viable on a commercial or subsidised basis. Combining social care and transport on one platform can deliver excellent value for money for statutory funders such as county or district councils.
The need for the HBC model exists because a barrier to using a typical Dial-A-Ride and Community Car service (such as those operated by many GNS) for the target groups is this mode of transport usually needs booking 24 hours in advance on the telephone and access has a short booking window. Also, some destinations require coordination of two or more DRT services to fulfil a journey. Evidence from our HBC trials is that a reliable scheduled service, no matter what the schedule is, is preferred to an ad-hoc DRT service - which is thus unobtainable when demand is elsewhere - because predictability and regularity is the key promise users want assurance will be fulfilled before adopting that mode.
Another benefit to statutory or charitable supporters of a HBC service is that it encourages the target groups to remain active and socially engaged by removing the transport barriers preventing the use of other services already provided. A nursery or an Over 60’s club or a lunch club becomes more accessible to a greater area when the transport there can be coordinated with a HBC.
Research with carers found that their caring role often didn’t give them enough time to attend to their own personal needs and the public transport schedules made it impossible for all of them to access the basic services they needed, thus they were more likely to only seek medical services when their needs were acute. The trial found users could visit services like a doctors’ surgery or take part in social activities, use the library or complete shopping which their present bus schedule doesn’t allow.
The HBC model has environmental benefits of encouraging shared transport rather than low-occupancy cars which reduce emissions, congestion and the demand for parking spaces in rural towns.
The HBC model makes volunteers more productive by an efficient use of the scarce social capital of the volunteer conductors and drivers which benefits a greater number and mixture of target groups. A community car scheme may have a volunteer to user ratio of 1:1 whereas a Handy Bus can easily achieve 1:8 for a greater level of service.
A HBC directs consumer spending to local retail businesses, thus adding to the vitality of rural towns and villages for services that may otherwise be purchased online or mail-order from distant retailers.
A HBC makes scheduled stops but it can vary its route to collect/drop at a passenger’s door. Target groups found the distance from their homes to the bus stop when carrying shopping was a barrier to using ‘staged’ buses.
The Bus Buddy on the HBC can fulfil essential errands for the target groups such as collecting prescriptions or returning library books during the turn-around times in the town. They can also fulfil delivery of pre-ordered items from local shops and services en-route or take recycling to the bottle-bank or charity shop, purchase small household items such as batteries, light bulbs etc. Then, for instance, if a carer or other target group can’t leave their house, some essential needs can still be met by using the service.
The Bus Buddy can support sensory or mobility impaired passengers in using the Handy Bus better than a bus driver alone (who cannot leave their vehicle). By being able to talk with the passengers during the journey (which the driver cannot) the Bus Buddy provides another opportunity for social interaction and enhances the experience of the journey for the passengers. The HBC can carry leaflets and information on services and local activities and the Bus Buddy can make referrals for passengers to other services and advise of events and cultural activities going on.
The HBC service is run as a membership club on a charter basis from a community transport operator using volunteer drivers. Although the club publishes a schedule to its members, it is not a “public” schedule and it is adjusted to suit demand or opportunity by the members. The membership is advised of changes and the Bus Buddy takes care of advertising changes in the schedule along the route.
Users request service by calling or texting the Bus Buddy (who is issued with a mobile phone) up to the time of the first advertised departure of the day. This reduces the advance booking time required to 30 minutes or less. If necessary, a locked-out single number mobile phone can be provided to in public places as well. Costs have been such that a fare of £2 per journey for about eight miles distance is feasible, a great saving over taxi fares or even community cars operating at 35-45 pence per mile. Unfortunately, under present rules, concession passes issued by county councils cannot be honoured.
Service benefit development:
Actions with other parties can greatly enhance the value of a HBC scheme and its chances of success with quid-pro-quo benefits.
If local doctors’ surgeries can give priority to the targeted groups to set appointments in the service window, it then enables the targeted groups to use the buses to visit the surgeries rather than being dependent on taxis (which they are very reluctant to use because of cost) thus removing the target group’s barriers to health care. The benefit of more predictable appointments (and the reduced cost) could steer patients to use the bus service, thus supporting its passenger numbers. A doctor’s surgery would gain a predictable patient stream with a reduction in missed appointments due to transport issues.
Shops and retail services in nearby towns can take telephone orders for goods and services unavailable in the customer’s home villages that can be collected by the Bus Buddy and delivered to the customer to the nearest shop (as a scheme partner) or to their door depending on need. The bus service and local businesses can establish transaction protocols and this makes deliveries in the villages being served by businesses nearby more viable, improving their customer footprint.
Village shops in the communities served do not lose custom as the service also makes deliveries from them viable too which they cannot do now below a certain spend. The village shops can also be collection and delivery points. Users don’t have to wait to give something like a library book to the Bus Buddy; but can leave and pay for delivery at the shop at their convenience. The Handy Bus collects it from the shop, thus this increases the shop’s footfall.
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