Convention transport for the future?

[NachtKrallen]

Hi everyfur, just with reading posts on the forum & recent tweets, I noticed there's a fair few number of furs visiting, coming in to Birmingham Airport & needing transport. This set me thinking about possible solutions. One idea I had was whether it might be worth looking into laying on an additional transport option for future conventions, say allowing visitors to pay a little extra to book transport, then the convebtion could maybe hire something like a crew van to collect groups at set times? I appreciate fuel and hire would need to be paid for and there may be complications regarding hire for hire/reward but sure something could be worked out. Although I'm not in a position to do anything like this for this year due to work, if it were considered viable, I'd be happy to assist in implimenting something like this and driving in future years. I also have a C1 so I can drive bigger vans provided they have less than 8 seats.
Just an idea anyway so thought I'd post it here for the staff rather than in the transport section incase it gets confused with any arrangements for this year ^..^

[neweinstein]

I think it would be a nice addition. I will also have to look for a transport from BHX to the Con. It seems a combo of a bus and a train will at least bring me to Hinckley and then I hope that the shuttle to the hotel will work or otherwise i will maybe even need a taxi as it seems that the hotel is quite a bit outside the city ... so ... a direct shuttle would come in very handy ...

[SFW]

It's been mentioned previously about having a shuttle running from Nunaeton or Rugby to the hotel. At last word it was to be discussed by the staff at the next meeting. So I don't doubt that there official word about it soon after that.*

Also, one important point for vans is the part where it says in the codes, 'Not for hire or reward'. It complicates things a bit with that one as it restricts what you can do with hire vehicles. What you really want is D1 or D which allows full use of the minibus categories and full sized vehicles for carrying passengers.

*Not official CF info, previously posted from here and UKFur.

[RizzoRattie]

Hello all,

as SFW has mentioned, and as per the website, we do hope to be able to run a shuttle bus from Nuneaton train station to the hotel on the key days i.e. Friday and Monday.  This has not yet been approved as we need to ensure we can afford to provide this service, and at the moment there are other priority operating costs we have to consider.

However, we do have an up and coming staff meeting in February, on which the transport hire is actually billed for discussion, so hopefully we will have more information soon, and as always, the website will be updated with full details, as will the twitter and LJ feeds.

The distance by road from Birmingham Airport to Hinckely equates to a 40 minute bus ride, so operationally, it would mean a very infrequent service being run.  It is much more logical to run it from Nuneaton given that this station is serviceable by Birmingham International.  The service would then be a lot more frequent, and easier to stager, meaning more flexibility for those traveling.

Watch the website and feeds for updates.  Hopefully we will have it very soon for you!  Thanks for your patience.

Kind Regards,

Rizzorat
------------
Venue Liaison &
Head of Fursuit Relations

[NachtKrallen]

Thanks for the info Rizzorat and if there's anything I can do to help, feel free to drop me a message, I do have a few contacts in transport in the east midlands. Just as an idea, as mentioned originally, if transport does take off, wondered if it might be worth making it an additional option in people's payments when booking to attend the convention. This would perhaps make it more viable and less costly for the convention itself ^^
As for the vans thing and hire & reward, I did mention this in my original post but sure there's ways around it. Just need to enquire with the right companies.
Happy to help any way I can anyway, with experience in events management myself as well as years of police experience and having additional driving qualifications etc, if I can be of assistance, let me know ^..^

[SouthPaw]

Whilst providing a shuttle service to/from Birmingham Airport sounds like a good idea, if the convention were to charge for it they'd likely fall foul of European Law on Package Holidays, which would cause serious cash flow issues...namely having to keep everyone's money in a separate bank account until after the convention.

Not surprisingly, that's not much use where you have suppliers who need to be paid before the convention...

Cheers,

Southie

[NachtKrallen]

Well, was just an idea, know it'd need some research but hey *shrugs* just trying to be helpful ^..^

[SFW]

If people arrange to club together before the convention for things it's not a problem as they would be arranging it themselves and most hire companies that send vehicle out provide the required insurance to drive them. When you start hiring out vehicles and charging fares it becomes a lot more complication.

For example if CF were running it's own bus as a private hire full sized vehicle they would need to have an operators licence (which has more requirements then you would ever think) and a transport manager.

[NachtKrallen]

This is true and I can appreciate potentially quite expensive, however, being the helpful wuff I am, should it ever be considered in the future, however distant, my contact runs this service for the download festival (obviously i appreciate you'd need a far higher demand to even consider this but should it ever become Potentially viable, the offers there) thanks for the info though and considering my suggestion. I hope this discussions been useful to other furs attending the convention as well and if I can be of any assistance, please feel free to contact me.
Looking forward to confuzzled with great anticipation,
NK ^..^