03/08/2020
Well we still have not got any grants or financial Aid of any kind .All our schools are due to reopen opening this month and our government has yet again forgotten about our industry as usual .
Wr are expected to get all our vehicles serviced cvrt ,psv’ed and over all checks and pay for this with tin air we havve not worked since March 12.
We have been excluded from every single sme grant that our government have created and knowingly been refused from been able to apply for them or to notice that we are small businesses.
And because we only have one registered successful body that got us small and big operators the agreement from the education department to pay the full and part 50% payment to all bus eireann operators since march to first week of June when payments stopped .
Foto are the only one organisation that has fought tooth and nail for this payment and was successful in securing it but they are also only ones that have successfully submitted the subbmissions for school transport operators .
Foto have been 100% behind the small operators and some of the bigger ones .
Foto deserve the applause and acknowledgement for getting this payment deal it was a great help to all operators operators that had contracts with Bus Eireann .
I also have to say a big thank you to Colm and team at Jf Dunne insurance as they covered the insurance issues for the protest for the operators that took place in Dublin city last week which was also a great success.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
If you are not insured with jf Dunne insurance i would strongly recommend you give them the opportunity to look after your lpsv insurance or any other insurance needs that you may have they really know the insurance industry inside out and are most certainly very helpful in the event of an accident or if you are just looking for advice on something in the insurance industry the team are extremely knowledgable on evey thing bus and coach and insurance in general.
With the success of the last protest we are ready for the next one and it is in the planning stages as we speak.
Operators have had enough of the excuses and lack of help from our government but Foto have also been busy with school transport submissions on behalf of all coach operators this is the only registered organisation and professional body that has stood by the small operators and successfully got the bus eireann payments awarded to bus eireann contractors .John and his team have been very busy fighting our corner at every turn .
Our group is also busy arranging interviews with
Local T/d’s and radio stations .We have also got huge support from Sinn Fein since March and had the pleasure of having them out at Celtic Journey Tour depot last week and this was also went extremely well .
There is also a meeting been arranged with F/F and they have also promised to look into matters and see what they can do for all of us .Right now the priority must be school transport as this is going to be the first industry to hit the road this month this should have been first industry on the priority list and not the tour coaches as these are finished till march 2021 at the earliest.
This industry is the life and soul of Airports,schools,train stations ,sports events ,Government gatherings and much much more.The bottom line is when small or large groups need to be moved we move them .Our vehicles are our pride and joys and we always keep them clean for every ones trip to their destinations .
But because of covid19 this has brought extra expenses i.e touch less sanitiser machines ,sanitiser,masks gloves and fogging disinfecting machines and the extra cleaning time this all takes .These are all extra expenses that we could of done without but they are going to be part of our life going forward .
We set up a petition recently regarding our fight for grants can all operators and friends of operator please sign this petition it is for all involved not just us small operators .It is extremely important that we have good numbers on this as this is going to given to minister for transport at our next meeting coming up shortly.Please share the socks of this folks it only takes seconds to complete and do your bit to fight and save our industry.
This is all the news so far but again a big thank you to Foto and their staff for securing the Bus Eireann payments on behalf of all the bus eireann contractors well done.I also want to thank you for all the thank messages and emails and some phone calls that we have received in the last view weeks we really appreciate all the kind words and praises.
I have also attached the petition so get signing it and pass it on to every one family and friends .
King Regards
Brian Clarke
Transport Operator
Silverlining Transport
Our industry moves ireland,school children,Airports,trainstations ,Ports ,Government Departments. We are the people movers of if Ireland with out us no one gets to their destinations in one vehicle . Our full size bus takes 6 cars of the road for every full size Coach .
