A knock on the door at a quarter to five. Anything unusual in that? Well, a little, being it was a quarter to five in the morning!
A taxi driver stands there, looking expectant at me and I appear, perhaps, just a little startled. The car wasn't due for another hour. But there's coffee on tap, 24-hour news on the TV, and with his early arrival we were able to beat the rush up to Heathrow and check in before today's pre-Christmas throng.
Whenever you perform a service for a new client, perform it as if it's an interview for a long series of jobs. And in spite of the early arrival, this airport transport firm has impressed. Good response to email, prompt follow-up on a couple of questions that weren't covered in the price list and FAQ, and a painless Paypal invoice - everything was set. Do they get any more business from us? Yes, they do; they know already of the return journey when we finish this trip, but what they don't realise is our changing business plans.
For years, we've offered to pick up students from Bristol Airport before courses and deliver them back there at the end. But with plans such as
Well House Manor coming on board next year, we'll be stretched to the limit. We're great believers in having people do what they enjoying doing and what they're expert at and we're not - really - expert drivers with full knowledge of the back roads. G****y, on a course at the end of November will tell you of a serious traffic jam that had him only JUST in time for his flight. No - let's pass this one on to the professionals and I'll use the two hours I've saved to write and improve the Hotel Room Booking system, or to improve the notes on MySQL replication.
Oh - I should give them a direct plug, shouldn't I? They's
Airport Specialist Cars on 01225 764141
(written 2005-12-23, updated 2013-02-23)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
G101 - Well House Consultants - Getting to and from Melksham [40] Take the train to training - (2004-09-06)
[154] Railway train service, Melksham station - (2004-12-17)
[187] a popular bus number - (2005-01-23)
[413] Save the train - (2005-08-13)
[486] Rail services under threat - Swindon, Melksham ... and Newquay and Bicester too - (2005-11-05)
[606] Train service from December - (2006-02-14)
[715] First way to get rid of customers - (2006-05-09)
[790] Shadow Transport Minister to visit Melksham - (2006-07-02)
[796] Busy day in Melksham - (2006-07-08)
[814] Melksham Railway Calendar 2007 - (2006-07-25)
[856] The train returns for a few weeks - (2006-09-05)
[952] Coming from London to Melksham by train for a course - (2006-11-28)
[1085] Lawrence Webb's Melksham Taxi service - (2007-02-18)
[1428] Travel Across Wiltshire - the game - (2007-11-11)
[1511] Buses from Well House Manor, Melksham, to Bath - (2008-01-18)
[1567] Melksham - Swindon. Train v Bus v Car - (2008-03-07)
[1594] Please support improvements in our train service - (2008-03-28)
[1723] Bath - Melksham - Devizes. Bus route changes, new timetable - (2008-07-26)
[1802] Motorcycles welcome at Well House Manor - (2008-09-19)
[1997] Travelling to a course - station pickups - (2009-01-16)
[2057] Train and Coach fares from London (and airports) to Melksham - (2009-02-26)
[2367] Learning to program - how to jump the first hurdles - (2009-08-20)
[2493] Melksham buses to/from Chippenham, Trowbridge, Bath, Devizes, London - (2009-11-05)
[2634] London to and from Melksham by public transport - (2010-02-13)
[2789] Melksham to London (Heathrow, and Central London) - (2010-06-02)
[2791] Bath to Melksham buses - times - (2010-06-03)
[3276] International travel to the UK - coming to Melksham - (2011-05-03)
[3751] Public transport for international arrivals into Melksham - (2012-06-04)
[3752] Melksham Visitors Map - Bus routes and train lines to and from the town - (2012-06-04)
[4168] Travelling to and from courses - much easier from December 2013 - (2013-09-08)
[4701] Pretty at the station too - (2016-07-06)
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