2 December 2010

Maynes gets you home – despite the weather!

Last weekend two Maynes coaches were on a weekend trip to York St Nicholas Fayre, and one on a three day Bruges Christmas Market Cruise. During the weekend the weather was atrocious, on Sunday morning at 0600hrs we decided to contact the drivers in York and cancel the last day trip to Haworth and get the drivers and passengers to head home for safety reasons.

On the journey North we constantly monitored the road conditions, discussed it with the drivers and ensured the drivers were up to date with the situation. At Dunblane, it became apparent that the road North was blocked, as a major route it very quickly became a backlog of hundreds of stranded motorists with Perth police setting up shelters in local schools to ensure their safety.

In discussions with Diamond Holidays (the two York coaches) we found hotel accommodation to be scarce in Perth, but found some at Pitlochry. After a long slog the drivers found safety and a warm welcome at The Fishers Hotel.

The mini cruise to Bruges also travelled as far as Dunblane/Perth stretch of the A9 northbound and we continued to take advice from the police and Newmarket holidays. With the weather closing in, Perthshire Police advised and directed our driver to a temporary shelter in a local school. The passengers were able to disembark the coach, seek warmth and hot drinks, food and temporary beds.

After the weather eased, our coach continued its journey North ensuring safe passage to it’s final drop at Fraserburgh at 1400hrs on Monday.

During the whole night our drivers were professional and ensured the passengers safety was paramount, whilst we kept them up to date with all conditions. This I put down to our systems and the work done by our well trained and professional drivers to ensure that all passengers get home safely albeit 16 hours later than planned

We have since had many letters complimenting our drivers on their professionalism and ability to keep calm under pressure and to keep the passengers feeling safe in extremely poor conditions.