Running minibuses to support your homes, and potentially other vehicles such as decorator
and maintenance vans, is time consuming and likely not your area of expertise. But it is a
cost centre, and one that needs control and expert support. That’s where FMS comes in, to
take all of that workload and worry away from your members of staff, all of whom have
valuable other work they need to do for you.
Our team supports your team
Your staff, either at the homes or in a central support office, most likely won’t have the
time, expertise or connections to ensure that your vehicles are kept available and road-
ready at all times. They also might not have the knowledge around compliance matters,
dealing with garages for servicing and repairs, or supporting breakdowns or accident
management.
FMS can support and control all of this for you in an efficient and cost-effective program,
meaning that your teams are not distracted from their main functions and potentially not
getting the best deals for every requirement.
Does it work for your team?
Other challenges that we see for operators is that some staff are not keen to drive the large
minibuses, meaning that they get little use and are thus costly for the resident benefit
derived from them. We also see instances where the vehicles are not suited to resident
needs, perhaps with the wrong ratio of wheelchair spaces to standard seating. This can
mean cost is incurred but utilisation is reduced, meaning that resident enjoyment and well-
being is compromised, and what should be an investment in a service feature is just a cost.
FMS can help match the right vehicle to each homes’ needs (see our separate article on
Choosing the Right Minibus), either through replacement for a more suitable option or by
rotating vehicles around your portfolio. We make sure that your vehicles get used, and that
your residents get out and about. You can also extract more value from your minibuses by
picking up and dropping off your staff where local public transport links are poor or absent.
We generally advise against buying new, with the accompanying depreciation, helping to
stretch your available budgets to provide quality pre-owned vehicles of low mileage and
high quality. Avoiding new can also avoid delivery delays, as well as the VAT on some non-
qualifying vehicles.
We’ve got your back
Our lines are open seven days a week and thus able to quickly support any unfortunate
incidents such as breakdowns or accidents. We are very aware that residents in a stranded
minibus need immediate attention, which you staff may not be around to provide.
So dial-in your peace of mind by engaging FMS to support and address these challenges, to
ensure optimum value from your minibus investment, maximising the enjoyment of your
residents, and enabling your staff to focus on looking after the people that you support.