2024 Peugeot Boxer 17 seat minibus with rear wheelchair ramp
Proposal code:
THC-2025-10-5
To replace our ageing 16 seat + driver minibus that is used for our rural transport service in Thurso as well as for hire by Community Groups across Caithness.
Estimated Price
40000
Our proposal is to replace our ageing 16 seat + driver minibus that is used for our rural transport service in Thurso as well as for hire by Community Groups across Caithness. The current minibus has now reached 7 years old and has clocked up 122,176 miles, however due to Caithness road conditions and the fact this vehicle is used for hire by community groups, the vehicle is becoming more and more unreliable, and is costing considerable amounts of money to repair at each breakdown or during its 10 weekly safety inspection. An additional problem has recently developed with the vehicle's underslung wheelchair lift. The lift has stopped operating and despite having the local ramp experts look at the vehicle, we have been unable to rectify the issue, so the vehicle is currently unavailable for rural transport duties.
Caithness Rural Transport provides a 7 day a week service (subject to availability) that is designed for people living in rural areas, regardless of age who meet our rural service qualifying criteria, and our town service is open to elderly and disabled people who meet our town service qualifying criteria. The service can be used for shopping, visiting friends, social functions, medical appointments etc., and we transport over 800 people a month from across Caithness in our fleet of 10 wheel chair accessible vehicles. The minibus in question is the largest in our fleet and as such is hire by community groups from all over Caithness, to take them on trips or to events across Scotland, with there being 66 hires in the last year alone for this vehicle. This project falls within the transport category of the local place plans.
The replacement of this minibus will restore a wheelchair accessible vehicle to our fleet and will provide a reliable vehicle that community groups can trust when hiring that they will not break down. Our current cost to community groups for hire of this vehicle is £20 for the first 15 miles then £1 per mile thereafter. This charge includes the fuel used.
If invited to provide a full application for funding, our next steps would be to get quotes for replacement vehicles and obtain a trade-in price for our current vehicle. We are currently looking at the same make and model of vehicle but a 2024 registration with mileage below 5,000 miles. These are currently showing on Autotrader at around the £37,000 to £40,000 price point + vat, and we anticipate a trade-in price for our current vehicle in the region of £8,000 to £12,000.
Our project start date would be as soon as funding could be secured and a suitable vehicle located.
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