Can I join?
Group Transport is there to provide low cost minibuses for the community in Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Camden and Enfield. But what do we mean by that?
Any group, formal or informal, that doesn’t exist to make a profit can join. This rules out:
- Individuals
- For-profit companies
So this means the range of groups who can be members is super-varied – charities and community organisations of all shapes and sizes, sports clubs and teams, faith groups – and churches, mosques and temples of all denominations, groups for interests and hobbies, clubs and societies, schools, colleges and universities (and departments, teams and clubs within those), campaign groups, and volunteering groups. This isn’t an exhaustive list – any group that doesn’t exist to make a profit can join.
Why can’t companies and individuals access Group Transport?
It’s all to do with regulation. Minibuses carry enough people to attract a lot of rules, permits, regulations and operating requirements – which are costly to administer. Transport plays a vital role in the work of community groups and civil society, so this is covered in transport law. Non-profit schemes that hire minibuses just to the community – like Group Transport – are able to work under much less burdensome regulation, making it possible to keep costs for those groups to minimum. This has the side effect, though, of ruling out hire by individuals and for-profit organisations.
If you’re interested in how this works in more detail – and the story of how Group Transport came to be, there’s more information here.
So where’s the line?
There are obviously some grey areas in these definitions. For example, what about a works football team or social club? The answer here depends on who is booking – if it’s the team or club, that’s a legitimate group, if it’s the company, that would be a booking from a for-profit organisation and not allowed. There are other grey areas too – in all cases, the best thing to do is to give us a call and talk the situation through.
It doesn’t look like I’m eligible, what can I do?
The first thing to do is to give us a call – it’s always worth checking. If it turns out that you’re not eligible, our colleagues from the wider HCT Group, CT Plus, can still help provide transport – but on a more traditional coach hire basis. You can visit our coach hire site here.
COVID19 Update:
Any organisation, regardless of status, can borrow one of our vehicles for free to deliver supplies to vulnerable people during the current crisis on our new scheme.