Brent Community Transport
Brent Community Transport (BCT Travel/BCT Plus) is an English social enterprise which provides various services, including community transport. It is an local transport service just like CT Plus or ECT Plus. It also has shuttle services, coaches, minibuses and school buses.
Services
Shuttle Bus Service
BCT Travel also operates a free shuttle bus service between Stonebridge Park Station (Tokyngton) and Brent Park IKEA. Passengers can also take local bus route 112 from London Buses to go to the IKEA. But Stonebridge Park passengers just take the free shuttle service instead of taking a busy bus service which also stops at Bus Stops!
Transport
Coaches
The coach enables large groups of people to travel in comfort together to any destination in the UK. All they need is the full details of the trip and once payment has been received, all you have to do is to be waiting at the agreed point for the coach to arrive.
Mini Bus with Driver
BCT has a diverse fleet of vehicles including minibuses and coach. BCT supply vehicles with their own paid contract drivers, either on a regular basis, or for one-off (spot contract) journeys. This service is proving increasingly popular, especially around peak periods (summer, the Christmas break, etc.). Our Bookings Department can provide quotations on request for any of your transport needs.
We are also providing regular contract work to a number of groups and agencies in the community. These include Brent Social Services, Brent Mencap, Brent, London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster Mental Health Services, Brent and Harrow Health Authority (a number of transport services to clinics), local schools, the Stonebridge Centre, and to Housing Associations.
Mini Bus without Driver
Under this service, any of their fleet of 12 to 17 seat minibuses is available to be driven by a volunteer however it is now compulsory that all drivers driving their vehicles must be MiDAS trained with any of our bona fide community registered organisations.
At present, there are over 250 affiliated or registered groups using our vehicles, which are suitably equipped (seat belts, tail lifts etc), to meet the varied needs of the community. This includes; mum's and toddler's groups, under fives nurseries, schools, youth groups, tenants associations, day centres, church groups, disabled, elderly etc. Affiliated groups using this service have their driver trained to MiDAS standard by our trainers.
Home to School Run
This service is one of their flagships, they pride themselves in providing schools and giving parents peace of mind as they know that children using this service will get to school on time and will arrive home safely which takes the stress out of parents who no longer have to fit in a twice a daily school run and off course doing their bit by contributing in making a friendly environment.
They pick-up children where possible from their door step or from a safe pick-up point and drop off those likewise children find this service to be very friendly as they meet the same driver and children everyday on their bus. Every parent is given the drivers mobile number as the first point of contact in the morning for any anomalies.
Vehicle Workshop
Brent Community Transport operates a vehicle workshop that can repair and maintain all types of vehicles including: cars, vans and minibuses.
It has been maintaining Brent Community Transports minibuses for many years and now has the facilities to carry out any maintenance or repair for outside organisations or clients who have cars or minibuses within their control.
Community Car Scheme
48 hours advance booking is required for this service. The operational hours, are Monday's to Friday's between the hours of 9:30am and 10:00pm and is subject to availability of drivers.
This service provides Door-To-Door Transport to elderly and disabled people residing within the London Borough of Brent. In order to use this service the user needs to meet the affiliation criteria set by the council for forms and further information for the scheme please request for an affiliation pack from BCT.
Journey’s for this service are anywhere within the M25 it is heavily subscribed and has over 600 registered users.
Training
Types of Training Conducted By BCT
* MiDAS (Minibus Driver Awareness Scheme)
* Passenger-Assistant Training (PATs)
* Manual Handling
* First Aid
Their Driver Training Department trains and assesses potential drivers to the nationally recognised MiDAS (Minibus Driver Awareness Scheme) standard. This scheme is developed in conjunction with CTA (Community Transport Association) and drivers are trained to the same standard nationally to drive minibuses of up to 17 seats capacity.
This service is also available to any organisation that needs to train their drivers. At present we have over 500 trained drivers on our register. Over the years BCT has greatly improved this service to the community, and has trained hundreds of drivers to MiDAS Standards, ensuring the safety of our passengers.
Other training also available and proving very popular is Passenger Assistant Training, (PATS) which is a nationally recognised scheme designed for anyone who has the care or supervision of passengers travelling by road.
In addition to the driver training, we have been accredited by the CTA as one of the first training agents to deliver Manual Handling Training.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require employers to provide training for all their staff. In the case of Manual Handling, this general requirement needs to be supplemented with more specific information and training on risks of injury and prevention.
This course was designed for drivers and passenger assistants as part of the MiDAS and PATS training package but can also be delivered as a free-standing manual handling course – people do not have to complete other MiDAS or PATS training before attending this one day course.
The MiDAS First Aid course is suitable for appointed persons and those who require the knowledge and skills to act safely in an emergency suituation and give effective life-saving assistance until better qualified personnel take over. These training schemes are open to all organisations and individuals.
A MiDAS training certificate is a mandatory requirement for anyone who wishes to drive any of their vehicles.
Excursions
They also provide an excursions service tailored to suit and meet our local community demands and have now included long-distance journeys by doing regular trips to theme parks, sea sides, museums, castles and shopping centres like Lakeside and Bluewater.
They can also provide an Airport Shuttle Service for the London Heathrow, London Gatwick, London Luton and London Stansted Airports.
See also
- CT Plus
- ECT Plus
- Stonebridge Park
- Brent Park
- London Borough of Brent