Hello everybody – we’ve missed you!!! At Hackney Community Transport, we’re gearing ourselves up for a busy end of summer as the lockdown eases and the warm weather continues.

If you’re looking forward to getting out and about again and you wish to hire a minibus, you’ll be pleased to know that the process of hiring a vehicle is still straightforward, but we’ve added in some extra elements so that everyone can stay safe and healthy.

The main differences are:

Bus capacities are lower – if you are hiring a vehicle for your own use, it will be your responsibility to ensure that your group is able to comply with social distancing rules. We are on hand to help you with this. At the time of booking we will ask you how many passengers are travelling so we can let you know what the new seating capacities are on our vehicles. We even have diagrams of our minibuses to show you where people could sit to comply with social distancing guidelines.

Booking a minibus with a driver – if you wish to hire a vehicle with a driver, we will ask you to tell us in advance how many passengers will be travelling and whether there are any wheelchair users, so that we can check if we have a vehicle that can accommodate your requirements. On the journey, we will require everybody travelling on the bus to do the following

• Space themselves out as directed by our driver
• Wear a mask during the course of the journey
• Wash your hands or use hand sanistiser before boarding the bus, and carry anti-viral wipes with you
• Respect and comply with any instructions given by our driver – for example when boarding the vehicle. Please be patient as this might take a bit longer than usual.
• Keep the windows open while travelling – this is the best way to keep the air fresh and clear

After the hire - It’s really important that you tell us about anybody in your group who has come down with COVID-19 symptoms during or after the hire so that we can tell our colleagues if they need to get tested.

MiDAS training is also back - more details are here.