Choosing the right wheelchair accessible minibus

Each home should have access to a minibus that suits their exact needs, to avoid investing in

a vehicle that won’t get fully utilised.

The key factors to bear in mind for this are:

• does it meet the needs of the residents
• does it meet the needs of the staff
• is it the right solution for the available budget
• does it provide the correct level of safety and quality for all concerned

Getting it right for your residents

As with the care in the your home, meeting the requirements of the residents for their

transport should be based on their needs. There should be the right mix between

wheelchair places and standard seats to provide for the profile of users to be transported.

FMS can ensure that the interior layout matches what you need, so that the staff can

optimise the number of residents that they can take out at any given time.

Getting it right for your staff too

Meeting the needs of the staff revolves around driveability of the chosen vehicle for them,

as well as having all the safety features they will need to transport their residents in secure

comfort. Some staff members may not be comfortable with driving larger minibuses, even if

they have a licence that permits up to 16 seats, with the medium sized vehicles of up to nine

seats potentially being more acceptable for them.

Don’t pay for what you don’t need

Some of our customers only have very occasional use for vehicles of more than 8 or 9 seats,

and supplement those situations with capacity from a local taxi firm that has wheelchair

accessible vehicles. That way they are only covering the additional cost of that higher

capacity when they need it, not all year round, ensuring that the budget is aligned to the

regular weekly needs of the home.

Feel assured

Finally, you’ll get complete peace of mind by dealing with FMS as we only supply approved

and legally compliant vehicles from premium converters, so safety and quality are

guaranteed.