Minibuses

Club Vehicles

Why use a minibus?

Minibuses (and transits more recently) are what make club trips. If you manage to secure a bus from the Union then your trip is pretty much guranteed to make a profit! Even if you don't, hiring one from somewhere like SHB or U-Drive can be a lot cheaper than cars.

Points to note:

1. You need 2 drivers per vehicle by union rules
2. You need to be licensed to drive a minibus (see minibus licensing and insurance)
3. You need to be on Uni Insurance to drive (see minibus licensing and insurance)
4. Union buses are 15 seater, trannys obviously 3. Many external hire minibuses are 17 seaters, and the vast majority of students are not licensed to drive these (they're too heavy)
5. Almost all Union buses have a roof rack, but you are limited to 6 (i think) boats on the roof - but perfect for a duo!
6. Cars cannot be relied on to run trips as the club does not pay owners depretiation (but some people love to drive their cars!)
7. A Long-Wheel-Base High-Top van takes about 22 boats, A Jumbo takes about 30 (you MUST request which one, or you'll get a tiny van!)

Booking a Union bus

Union buses are booked by filling in a form from outside the Clubs/Societies Office and handing it in. Put on every driver you can think of! You'll find out a week before by email if you get it. As its only a 50% chance you'll get a bus, it's important to put in for a Hire one as a fallback (you can always cancel!).

As for the amount of funding, annually we have a given minibus budget, usually this goes on the longer trips such as North Wales and Scotland, so if in doubt just circle 0%.

Booking a Hire bus/Van

Ring SHB (02380 552 144) or U-Drive (SHB is always preffered as we get a discount for not using their insurance). Book required vehicles, and note down the make, model and reg no of the vehicles. On the day of departure/or day before, get a 'external hire insurance' form from outside the clubs/societies room and fill it in. Then go to the finance office and swap it for bus permits. These cost about £35 each so bring a club cheque. You cannot drive a hire vehicle without these.

Go to the hire place with a club cheque and permit, and pick up the van. Check the vehicle for cracked glass, and broken lights (these are a real pain, especially if the speedo lights don't work!) If picking up from somewhere other than SHB, don't forget about rush hour traffic!

Loading the Van

Loading the van is a special skill few are born with, you must learn through the passed down advice of Kev and Chris Vian!

Actually, all you need is a bit of common sense, but for a thoroughly tried+tested method see below:

Things to note:

• Boats slide in cockpit to cockpit nose to tail, 6 in the bottom row, 6 in middle, 5 (usually) on top toalling 17.
• It is VERY important to keep the weight as low as possible, so as much paddling kit and heavy stuff as possible must be put inside boats on the bottom row.
• With the jumbo, if LOADS of very heavy kit is put in a the back (i.e 30 peoples beer and kit) it makes it very unpleasant to drive!
• Boats must ALL be secure. Many windscreens and doors have been broken in the past by flying boats. Jam that topo in hard!
• Paddles are best strapped together and placed so they don't decapitate the person who opens the door.

Lets begin!

1. Get ALL the boats out of the shed onto the tarmac and sort them - 6 big club boats or creekers, 6 smaller (usually inazones), then the rest.
2. Check all the boats for bungs, footrests, buoyancy bags
3. pack the bottom boats with heavy kit (wetsuits, cags, decks etc). Not BAs or helmets.
4. Stand up the wood boards (kit shed) behind the seats, and load the first 6 boats. Make sure they arn't loose If there is storage above the seats, put the helmets there.
5. Jam kit down between the boats and the seats
6. Pack the next 6 with kit (BA's if theres nothing else) and load them
7. Repeat for top row
8. For remaning boats, the trick is to slide them inbetween the front boats if long, or stand up playboats (they have to be really short to stand up!) Then it's a case of squashing all the personal kit and paddles in!

One loaded van! Should only take 15 mins, my record on a friday night is about 1 1/2 hours! FAFFTASTIC!

--village