Membership fees?

[Tony Ferrari]

[quote name="John Hudson"]I’ve got a reliable 4x4, class 1 business insurance, training and experience driving on and off road in a number of countries and a can do attitude? What more do I need?[/quote]



John, thanks for your comments they are constructive and we do value them but I am curious about some. Also please don't think I'm trying to put you down because I don't agree with you but you have raised some valid points that I think need addressing.



And although I am sure someone from Wessex will respond direct to you, may I apologise on behalf of 4x4 Response for the way you seem to have been dealt with on the phone. Please bear in mind the person may have been either controlling or responding themselves and possibly for several hours, not an excuse for bad manners but possibly understandable.



To take your statement above, yes you are insured when using your vehicle but membership of a group entitles you to cover under the National insurance policy that is not vehicle insurance. It is third party liability cover for when you are away from the vehicle and not only applies when responding but also when training, promoting, fundraising etc.



You talk about stopping to help people out and yes we all do it and most probably all did before getting involved in 4x4 Response. But in fact that is not what we are here for. Vehicle recovery is something we can do and obviously by being out in poor conditions, it will often find us.



But we are not recovery agencies, that's not our role. We provide reliable transport to the Emergency Services, Local authorities and other voluntary agencies. In the last week we have done a myriad of tasks from delivering meals on wheels, getting District Nurses, Health Visitors, Home Carers, GPs etc to their clients. We have got doctors, nurses, emergency services controllers, ambulance drivers and even registrars to work and we have helped evacuate vulnerable persons from their homes in power cuts, delivered essential supplies to others and helped rescue people stranded on remote upland roads (and a dozen other things I've most probably forgotten). Very few of these, if any are incidents we would just come across and have required us to be actively and specifically tasked by the appropriate agency in each case.



Which brings me to the potential problem of you (or anyone) offering your services to the authorities as an individual. This is what is known in the trade (and only partly jokingly) as the "Nutter in a Hi-Vis" i.e. the potentially uninsured, gung ho volunteer, possibly with all the gear but no idea (and no I'm not implying that's you).



OK so they can check you out but think of that for a minute. Each organisation would need to make sure you have the correct licence, MOT, insurance, training (and expect to see proof), possibly a CRB check and of course 3rd Party liability cover. It suddenly becomes a mammoth task and one that would be duplicated several times by each of them. And how do they call you out? Ten volunteers potentially means ten phone calls to make.



Or they can access your services through an organised group they already have a service level agreement with, whom they trust to have checked the legality of their members and their vehicles, have apropriate insurance, will have assessed their experience and training and have trained their members themselves. And you can call out their members by a single phone call or text message.



You can easily see which option the Emergency Planning Officer would favour and this is not conjecture on my part as I have been an Emergency Planner in Local Government and now the NHS for the last 16 years.



I am also very familiar with the work of SERV having been a member and the secretary of the EVS Bloodrunners in North East London for several years back in the 1980's and indeed my own 4x4 Response group have been backing up SERV Herts & Beds since last Wednesday. The fundamental difference is that whilst SERV don't charge membership, members do contribute their own fuel. 4x4 Response groups on the whole do get a (non profit) mileage fee paid through the service level agreements they have with user groups. Swings and roundabouts but essentially no form of volunteering is ever free to the volunteer.



I do hope you haven't been put off too much as it sounds like you could contribute a lot to your local group.



Regards



Tony