LETTER3

Availablity of Non-Self-Service Petrol Stations

In February '94, Dame Ann Frye convened a meeting of DD organisations and the principal filling-station chain operators
at the DoT's old office in Marsham Street. The result was a Voluntary Code of Conduct - written by the DoT's Disability
Unit, in consultation with the driver organisations and the fuel retailers - which in retrospect appears to have done little
or nothing to improve the lot of people who can't get out of their cars and serve themselves at automated stations.

The organisation I serve was not sanguine about the prospects of Dame Ann's voluntary code. It decided a little self-help
was in order and sent out some 50,000 questionnaires to disabled drivers asking them where they *knew* they could be sure
of service at the pumps. We got about 4,000 back. From them we were able to construct a database of about 1,100 stations in the UK where forecourt service was the norm. (The Nuffield Foundation, Disability Now, the DDA, DDMC, MS and MD
Group picked up the tab for this costly exercise).

Using GIS software donated by NextBase and with the help of a substantial grant from the Nuffield foundation to buy
computers, we set up a telephone service. Callers tell us where they live & we do a map search of up to 10 miles round their
postcode for non-self-service stations. We also plan cross-country routes & produce map-sheets with the stations on, or fairly
near, to the roads they will traverse, plotted thereupon.

The service, which we call RAMP (Routeplanning & Access Map Printing)has expanded beyond the original purpose, but we
still get anguished calls from inexperienced disabled drivers who have discovered they are unwelcome at filling stations
if they arrive alone. The classic of all time was from a lady in London who said she had been supplied with a Motability
car, she'd had it a fortnight and the tank was half empty - where could she find a garage that would put more petrol in
for her before it ran dry?

As time has gone by we have learned of a few helpful filling stations missed by the 1994 survey. In the last 12 months,
however, we have been told of numerous closures, and conversions to self-service and single manning (which is
the *real* problem & created by cost-cutting managers). But worse yet, many service garages are ceasing to sell
fuel because they can't compete on price. Service garages are seldom on main through routes but they have always
been the likliest places to get help at the pumps because there is usually a mechanic around the place who can be
summoned on the tannoy or whatever to do the job.

We knew this fact when we set up RAMP. The unique value of our system is that we can direct travellers to these
back-street garages which, if they are strangers to the district, they would otherwise never see. Now *they* are
giving up on fuel sales the plight of disabled drivers is likely to become an issue again - real soon!

It has become a matter of urgency to update our database. Every disabled driver can help. I can fax maps and lists
of nearby stations turned up by our 1994 survey to anyone willing to get in their car & do a little wheel-work - all
I need to know is their home post-code. RAMP runs on a shoe-string; everybody is a volunteer but the overheads still
absorb all the funds we get from donations and fees. Right now we haven't got enough cash to post questionnaires to the
1,059 filling stations still on our lists.

Sincerely,

Ron Salt (TRon)

DMF RAMP Co-ordinator/Systems manager.
13 July 1997