During School Transport Safety Week, which begins on September 21, BUSK is launching a new initiative – a PTA Corner.
“We hear from so many schools that have run into problems when it comes to hiring coaches for school trips, with some let down badly with the coach just not turning up at the school yet the school will have already paid in advance for the service,” commented BUSK’s Director Pat Harris.
“For schools that use coach brokers not realising they are entering into a contract with a call centre that sub contracts a coach for them, they will pay their money to the broker and in some cases, this has resulted in coaches not booked. The coach company may not have received any money so they just do not turn up.
“Some good brokers do exist but how would a school tell which is which and in some instances, BUSK has learnt that the school thought they were dealing with a coach company.
“As leading school transport consultants in the UK, we decided it was time for us to do something positive to assist schools bearing in mind that with tight budgets, many cannot afford to get the right expert advice for free. BUSK, of course, provides that expert advice free of charge for parents and schools and now we have extended this free service to Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs).
“Schools can expect to be hearing from BUSK at some point with an invitation for the PTA to join us or they can simply contact us at any time to request their free membership.”
The PTA Corner will offer schools help to be up to date with the legal requirements when making transport arrangements for trips, tips for effective fund raising for the school trips and each PTA that joins BUSK will be entered into a prize draw. The winning PTA will win a money-off voucher towards the cost of coach travel for one school trip.
