BusyBus develops social distancing solution

Sightseeing day-tour coach company, BusyBus, believes it has a solution to make coach tourism viable in a world of social distancing.

Operating from Liverpool, Manchester and Chester, BusyBus has been forced to furlough its entire workforce and SORN its fleet due to COVID-19. During this period of downtime, it has been developing a solution to increase footfall back onto its tour vehicles. It identifies social distancing as the issue, claiming a two meter separation would take a 49-seater coach down to a capacity of around 20 and require a sophisticated and disciplined boarding procedure relying on everyone’s participation. A 16-seater minibus could just about get six onboard under such conditions. It would be economically unsustainable, the company’s founder and MD, Peter Rosenfeld, said.

In response to this quandary, the company has developed TravSafe, a heat-sealed pack designed to contain everything needed by each passenger to maximise their protection against airborne and surface-festering infection where social distancing is impractical or impossible. The pack is designed for single-use (over a journey or perhaps a day) and contains hand wipes, gloves, face mask, face shield, tissues, COVID-Aware statement and full instructions. The pack itself acts as a safe disposal bin and the entire package is made from recyclable materials. BusyBus has handed over its concept to a start-up trading brand, TravSafe. It is wholly owned, utilising the same management team and operates from BusyBus’s depot near Chester. It aims to redeploy the BusyBus workforce into production until they can resume their normal roles again.

Peter Rosenfeld, MD of BusyBus and Travsafe, said: “This is not something I envisaged ten weeks ago and has tested every entrepreneurial skill set we had in our bottom drawers. From crisis through concept, creation, market research, procurement, infrastructure, production, legislation, packaging, website shop to delivery in under four weeks! The product needed to be practical, sustainable, and commercially viable to high-usage coach and transport operators. So many are cashing-in on this crisis and selling individual items contained in this pack for over 25 times their value. We do not want to exploit the situation. We want to find an affordable solution and support our friends, colleagues, and peers in the industry. We think we have achieved this.”

Packs can be purchased online through www.travsafe.co.uk for as little as £5 and can be free-issued to each passenger that does not have their own equivalent or even sold if necessary. Says Peter; “It’s an unwanted £5 ‘tax’ per passenger but is no different than a commission paid to an OTA re-seller for delivering clients. It is also the difference between a passenger selecting your company over a competitor when they feel thought about, safe and secure; in fact, TravSafe!”

  • A YouTube video demonstrating TravSafe is available here.

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