Conference News Supplements Meet the Midlands Supplement | Page 14

14
Meet the Midlands
Moving
around
Some venues in the Midlands may be far from stations and airports,
but a clean, green solution is very much part of the planning
vent organisers across
the region know that
the success of any
conference or event
often hinges on the transport
arrangements and as most events,
whether it be for customers or staff,
involve large people movements, it’s
important to get this right. Coaches
play a significant role in the
arrangements, because they are a
totally flexible mode of travel and
therefore people movements and
timings can be completely tailored to
suit the needs of the event.
Air quality and climate change are
becoming major issues in all realms
of business and event organisers
will be looking to reduce their impact
on the environment, including
reducing CO2 emissions and finding
more sustainable ways of moving
staff and customers during the
course of their event.
Air quality and
climate change
are becoming
major issues
in all realms
of business,
and event
organisers will
be looking to
reduce their
impact on the
environment.
Above: Three of the new
Euro 6 coaches that arrived
for 2019
Below: Johnsons well
known livery always looks
impressive
Companies like Johnsons of
Henley-in-Arden are very aware of
these issues and are making huge
fleet investments to ensure that the
coaches they provide are the very
latest and environmentally friendly
around, in terms of emissions and
economy. Since 2016 Johnsons has
invested in Euro 6 emission standard
coaches and now have 21 in its fleet.
Investment levels have exceeded
£1.5m in new coaches since this
latest Euro standard came into
place and this will continue
unabated in 2020 and beyond.
Johnsons will be acquiring five new
coaches in the spring of this year;
two 35 seaters and three larger
capacity coaches, all to executive
high standards.
Organisers might be interested to
know some statistics. A single
coach can eliminate up to a mile of
car traffic from the roads. It’s true, a
coach with 50 passengers can
eliminate the equivalent number of
cars, each with an occupancy of 1.7
people and allowing the Highway
Code recommended stopping
distances at 60mph, which would
stretch for over a mile.
Furthermore, the footprint of a
coach takes the equivalent space of
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around 3.7 cars on the road.
Compared to cars, coaches can
transport around 25 times the
number of people with the same
levels of emissions. Coaches that
are compliant with the Euro 6
emission standard has very similar
total emissions of NOx and PM
content to a Euro6 car. The coach
carries an average of 44
passengers, the car just 1.7.
John Johnson, who has been the
commercial director at his family
firm for over 40 years says it is well
worth organisers considering their
transport requirements very early on
in their overall event planning. He
adds: “Transport arrangements and
how well they are organised can
make or break the success of the
event and experienced operators
like ourselves can provide advice
and help create great solutions for a
successful event.”
Johnsons have 48 coaches and
are one of the Midlands leading
coach operators. Its modern fleet
caters for all event sizes and
organisers are always impressed at
their event, when they see a line of
coaches, all in the same livery,
driven by smart uniformed,
professional drivers.