Online Event Recap: Good to Go – Organising Trips

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From October to December, CTA is holding a series of free online events looking at important topics for the community transport sector, and what life might look like for our members over the next few months and into 2021.  Throughout lock-down, our online events, from our weekly member drop in calls to our Recovery and Restart webinar in July, have been great ways for members to connect with each other and the CTA team in what has been a challenging and uncertain time. Your feedback has been that you wanted to see more opportunities for online events looking at the important topics and issues facing the community transport sector at the moment.

You can find our full programme of events here.

On 20 November, we held the final Good to Go session of this year’s series of online events. In this session, we discussed what needs to be taken into consideration by CT operators in order to organise safe and COVID-secure trips. 

We started the session with a short presentation on topics such as the specific guidance for the different nations, guidance for car schemes, risk assessments, communicating with passengers, and planning for Christmas.  

In order to provide the services that so many people rely on, one of the most important things that transport providers need to consider is the specific guidance issued to their nation, which will help them in figuring out whether or not a journey is allowed to be carried out in their local area. CTA’s latest guidance for community transport can be found at ctauk.org/covid19-guidance/.  

The second most important thing operators need to carry out before restarting any services is a risk assessment, which is not about eliminating risk, but about doing everything that can possibly be done to minimize it. As the situation is changing frequently, it’s important to consider creating a new risk assessment every time local tiers or restrictions change. There’s a risk assessment template available on our coronavirus guidance page, and CTA members can also access a range of examples from other community transport providers. 

On the topic of communicating with passengers, our advice is that effective communication is key to building their confidence back up. It is important to keep passengers updated on what organisations are doing to keep them safe, but there’s also a need for clarification on what actions passengers need to take to make sure risk is kept at minimum levels for everyone else. We shared some of the work produced by three of our members on this matter, which you’ll be able to see in the slides below. 

In the spirit of the season we’re in, Christmas was an important topic on the agenda! At the time this session was held, Government guidance regarding Christmas had not come out yet, so we focused the discussion on what plans CT operators had already underway for the coming festive season. We shared the plans that two of our members are currently working on, which you’ll also be able to see in the slides below. 

These topics sparked a very interesting debate amongst participants, who were keen to know more about different subjects, such as the requirement for drivers to wear a face mask while driving, whether or not CT operators have the right to refuse transport to a passenger who’s been told to self-isolate, the cost-effectiveness of transporting only 4 people on a minibus at a time, the opportunity for the CT sector to provide transport for people getting the COVID-19 vaccine, and fundraising. We ended the discussion on a festive note, with participants sharing the plans that they’ve got underway for their Christmas services.  

More information

If you’re interested in attending any of our other events, take a look at ctauk.org/online-events and if you have any questions about any of the topics covered in this event, you can get in touch with our advice service at advice@ctauk.org. You can also find our coronavirus guidance for community transport providers at ctauk.org/covid19-guidance.

Event Recording and Slides