Coach Operators - What would you do?

Hotel guru and former operator Jon Hartley has encountered many difficult scenarios in his time in the industry. Here he asks: when disaster strikes, what would you do?

Every one of the following scenarios is genuine. Test your staff (and yourself) as to what they would do if...

Your coach has just arrived at Dover to be told that the French have blockaded all ports for 24 hours. Overnight accommodation and dinner is booked in Calais. What do you do?
With your coach en route to Scotland, your overnight hotel phones to advise of a book out for half the group. What do you do?
You are contacted by some clients who are disabled, and cannot manage the twelve steps into the hotel by the Rhine. What do you do?
A couple threaten to sue you because on their August tour of Spain, they found the coach ‘unbearably hot’ even with the air conditioning on. What do you do?
Your coach arrives in Ullapool for the ferry to Stornoway, to be told the ship has engine trouble, and is still in the Outer Hebrides with no chance of moving for 12 hours. All hotels are full in Ullapool, what do you do?
Bad weather has cancelled all ferries to and from Orkney, and you are on the quayside in Kirkwall ready to board. Your accommodation the previous night has been taken by a group which has just arrived. What do you do?
There is a sudden and unexpected diesel shortage in Cornwall, and your coach hasn’t enough to get to a friendly operator in Bristol from Penzance. What do you do?
Your group was meant to depart from its excursion to St Ives 45 minutes ago, and a couple are still missing. What do you do?
A passenger phones you as he thinks the driver will be over the drink drive limit following a heavy session the previous night. The group is due to leave Oban in ten minutes. What do you do?
Your coach is returning home, but many of the passengers are suffering from sickness and diarrhoea, what do you do?
The dinner on the first night of a seven night stay was so bad half your clients walked out. What do you do?
Your best driver has been approached by your main competition. What do you do?
Your driver phones you from his lunch stop on the first day of the tour to tell you he had a couple on who were dirty and smelled of stale urine. Other clients were refusing to travel with them on board. What do you do?
Your hotelier phones you are as an otherwise very nice elderly gentleman is incontinent, and has ruined a bed and carpet in his room. What do you do?
Your tour driver phones in with genuine illness on the day of departure, and you can’t find anyone else to drive the tour. What do you do?
A hotel with two coach tours in, one of which is yours, catches fire in the wilds of the Highlands. Everyone escapes but only in their night clothes – no glasses or even teeth! Damage to the hotel is significant, and the Fire Service will let no-one back in until at least the following day. You have 48 clients stood in their night clothes with no personal belongings. What do you do?

I have either been involved with, or heard of all of these scenarios, and in every case a solution was found, but not always a cheap one!

You will have your own opinions on what you could, should, or might do, and much of this will depend on additional circumstances which surround every problem.

I would suggest that above all, the clients come first, the publicity and/or reputation second, and costs third. Quite often all three will be intermingled, and many of these problems will depend on the contractual obligations you have agreed with suppliers, and your own insurance conditions and liabilities.

However, things can get very complicated, and take the cancelled Ullapool to Stornoway sailing as an example. As this is a Cal Mac ferry you will find them very helpful in getting space on other routes. In this case, it may call for the coach to go to Uig on the Isle of Skye, where they could catch the ferry to Tarbet on Harris, and then drive up the Isle to Stornoway on Lewis. With a phone call to the hotel advising of a later arrival time, and a later requirement for dinner, it may have been a bit of a trek but at least they are where they should be.
I spoke to a friend of mine in the insurance industry that specialises in our sector about this cancelled sailing problem, and he sent me the following;

“As I said when we spoke originally this is likely to be a complex issue are it is likely to come down to contractual obligations between the parties involved and therefore not easy to answer on a “general basis” but here are some thoughts, although not necessarily in the right order!

Tour Operators Liability

This cover provides protection to tour operators for their legal liability to customers. Often this cover can be considered to be contingent as other peoples policies are more likely to react in the first instance.

For example a package put together by a tour operator may involve the contracting of a coach firm for travel, a venue for entertainment and a hotel for accommodation. All of these entities would hold insurance covering their legal liabilities for injuries sustained to customers.

To look at your example the cancellation of a ferry would not be something that a tour operator would be legally liable for and therefore this cover would not respond.

Travel Insurance

Travel insurance can provide a wide range of benefits to the traveller and can be taken out on an individual or group basis, can be bought for single trips or on an annual basis.

Travel insurance provides a wide range of varied benefits depending on the requirement of the traveller. Most policies provide cover for cancellation and curtailment and some include delay within this but often for limited sums insured for example £20 for 12 hours delay.

This type of policy is more likely to respond to the situation given where alternative accommodation needs to be sought but the sums insured are unlikely to cover the cost of alternative accommodation.

Although not compulsory many tour operators require passengers to have travel insurance or to buy travel insurance as part of the package.

Force Majeure

It is quite possible that this scenario could be considered force majeure that is outside of the control of the tour operator and many will exclude any liability in such circumstances in their terms and conditions.

I must admit to having to contacting another Insurance Broker who is also a CTC member and he came to the same conclusion as me that in essence the cost of booking an alternative hotel is uninsurable. The point is to be made that the tour operator is under no obligation to do so, other than protects its reputation.”

So, it’ll cost you! No surprise there then!
If we accept that your clients must come first, solutions have to be found and quickly, and in many cases this is where your knowledge will be of great benefit – or that of the Wholesaler you are using.

Cal Mac tell me this scenario actually happened in July of this year, so don’t think cancelled ferries due to bad weather only happens out of the main season. During the period October to May the weather to all of Britain’s Isles can be ‘uncertain’, and this is accepted as a fact of life by the Islanders, who are hardened to accept that they may well be stuck in a port for a day or two whilst the weather blows over.

Before the relevant Tourist Boards of The Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland start preparing a special welcome for me the next time I visit, I hasten to add that these islands are my favourite part of the UK, with white sandy beaches, eagles soaring, wandering deer, great food, and especially great people, and the off chance that something would go wrong on a ferry crossing will never stop me from going there. Both Cal Mac and Northlink are well used to the vagaries of our weather, and the ships are built to cope with everything from a flat calm to what the locals call a “wee swell”!

Enough of the Isles, how did you do on the other problems? Have you faced similar? Why not write in and let us know what you did to ensure the safety of your passengers and the continuation of the tour. It will make interesting reading for all of us!