By Mitchell Clarke
A Pakenham tour company will utilise their buses and transport the elderly and vulnerable to and from supermarkets during exclusive trading hours.
Tourism operator Tour Local’s buses are currently sitting empty as the company struggles through the Covid-19 pandemic – so the company decided to use their assets for good.
Operations manager Raymond Staindl said the initiative to help the community’s most vulnerable came about over the span of 24 hours.
“We deal with a lot of seniors on our tours and we know firsthand that as capable as some are, there are still some hurdles that may make it harder for some to do something as simple as getting to Coles for 7am,” Mr Staindl explained.
“We come to your house, pick you up, play some good tunes along the way, take you to Coles, wait for you to do your shopping and then bring you home.”
The company will run three services to Coles supermarkets at Lakeside, Heritage Springs and Cardinia Lakes for a few weeks, but said it could extend that depending on demand.
“We were so proud with how much of our community were so quick to get behind this idea,” he said.
“We are planning on doing it for three days a week for at least a few weeks, serving the Pakenham area but with the response we’ve had and the amount of people we’ve had wanting to volunteer their time, I can’t see why it couldn’t be spread wider.”
Like many small businesses, Tour Local has been dramatically affected by the unprecedented Covid-19 conditions, but they’re also still reeling from the bushfire crisis.
“Being part of the tourism industry, we have been feeling the effects since the start of the year, with the bushfires and the ways in which they’ve devastated some of our most travelled to locations,” Mr Staindl said.
“We are a small, family based company and Tuesday was, for us, D-day. From 9am till 5pm, we cancelled over 90 percent of our bookings for the month of April.
“On that same day I was forced to throw out $9000 worth of theatre tickets alone, for shows that were no longer going ahead.”
But the company still maintains the ability to search for the good in a terrible situation.
“This was also the day where the idea for the shopping bus was first formed… so even on the worst days, there can still be good things to come out of it,” he added.
“I still have a job, I still have a roof over my head, I have food, I have my dog by my side and I have toilet paper – I’ve got the essentials.
“Now my thoughts go to other people in my community who may not be as well off. I believe that it is in these times, when the true value of our humanity and the resolve of our human spirit is tested like never before, that we show our true colours.”
The tours will begin from Tuesday 24 March and bookings are essential.To book, contact Tour Local on 5941 8800.
