The Village Minibus

August 2010

The wheels on the bus are definitely going round and round. Bookings remain strong and we seem to be carrying more passengers than ever before – well over 800 in the first four months of our financial year and there doesn’t appear to be any let up in the months to come. The message is loud and clear that The Village Minibus continues to be a success thanks to your support, our drivers and our sponsors.

Together we shall continue to be the envy of many in Gloucestershire who don’t have access to such a great asset. We are not going to rest on our laurels, though, and our action plan remains as direct as ever and you may want to cut out the following and keep it before you at all times

 Action Plan 1/8/2010 to 31/3/2011

1. Keep those bookings coming in – book early book often. Telephone 01452781055.

2. Volunteer to become a Village Minibus Driver. Drive as often or as little as you like. Telephone 01452781055.

3. Become a Village Minibus Sponsor. Telephone 01452781055.

4. Visit the website www. villageminibus.co.uk for up to date details of what is going on.

5. Follow Actions 1-4 and keep Mrs P (who is not to be trifled with) happy – if she is happy, so am I. To check telephone 01452781055

Remember, it’s very cheap to use the Minibus. There is a basic charge of £25 for half a day’s use and just £35 for a whole day. In addition we charge 40p per mile. To give you some examples a trip to Birmingham Airport would cost £70, a trip to say The Bristol Hippodrome or Colston Hall would cost £65.

Membership of The Village Minibus is just £2 and that’s for life!

July 2010

One of the reasons why The Village Minibus is so popular, other than the fact that all our drivers are attractive, handsome & gorgeous, is the cost of using the service.  It costs just £35 for a full day’s hire or £25 for half a day plus a mileage charge of 40p per mile. So if there is as group of 15 wanting to go to, say, Bristol for a show it would only cost each person less than £5 for the trip. Quite often, however, there are often empty seats on the minibus which means that the individual cost is proportionately higher. This happened to a group from Staunton who hired the minibus to take them to The Victoria & Albert Museum in London for the very popular Quilting Exhibition. The organiser of that trip believed that they would have filled the minibus if only other people outside of their group knew that there were spaces available. Well there is now!

I am more than willing to act as “broker” for any group organising a trip that they believe may not be fully booked. They can give me full details such as destination, date & time and I will advertise it on our website www.villageminibus.co.uk.

I’ll be more than happy to pass on the name and telephone number of the trip organiser so that they may finalise details. Even if you haven’t got internet access it will be still worth your while telephoning me on 01452781055 for details of any trips.

Mrs. P (who is not to be trifled with) thinks it is a great idea and will use the service when she hires the bus for her next Arm Wrestling bout or Ulukinatme Tournament (Ulukinatme is a little known Japanese Martial Art of disabling an opponent with a withering look – Mrs P is a Grand Master Black Belt in the sport.)

I will remind anyone booking the minibus of the availability of this service and ask if they want to use it.

One trip which we organise and is very popular is our monthly Shopping Trip to Cheltenham on the first Wednesday of each month. We will pick you up at around 9amish drive to Cheltenham and return from there at 12.30pm all for £3.

I’m always available to take your calls whether it is for booking the Minibus or just a general enquiry.