Just a thank you to a fellow operator – yet more proof of the goodwill in our industry.
We had a breakdown at the NEC in Birmingham last week; our driver phoned at 2145hrs. We contacted DTE and messages went out and in the meantime I phoned an operator in that area.
The phone went through to an on-call supervisor and he immediately set the wheels in motion. He told us that he had a number of coaches at the NEC, and within five minutes he rang back and told us that a coach and driver would be clear in five minutes, just a few miles up the road.
However, their driver would not have time to do the job for us, so they arranged him a taxi home, and loaned us a £275,000 15-reg Scania Irizar I6.
Our passengers were on the move by 2215hrs, and came home in absolute luxury. They also took on the responsibility of fixing our 52-reg Volvo that transpired to have a dud battery.
We both had coaches at the NEC again the next day, so we operated up with their I6 while they ran our coach in to NEC, and we then changed vehicles at the NEC for the return.
For all of this assistance, and they stressed throughout that their primary concern was our group (mainly children), they charged us a fee that would barely have covered a night out with my wife. When I queried this, their response was just that they were happy that they were able to assist and would no doubt be glad of some assistance themselves at some point.
So to Andy at Solus Coaches of Tamworth, we would like to express our thanks publicly and wish them all the best.
Thanks also to the team at DTE and to the six offers of help that we received through the DTE message.
Bob Auty,
Partner,
Diamond Coaches,
Rushden,
Northamptonshire
