Investments In Reliable Passenger Transportation

Reliable passenger transportation services are always ready, willing and able to get passengers from point A to point B without complications. In a perfect world, this statement would always ring true. Unfortunately, reliability isn't as common in today's world as it should be due to a variety of factors. Nevertheless, this type of accountability is especially needed by disabled passengers who trust and depend upon airport ground transportation to deliver them from one terminal to another for connecting flights.

Airports, like hospitals, have traditionally been hampered by a consistent shortage of wheelchairs. The folding, portable wheelchairs so commonly seen today have seen little change since they were first patented in 1936. These chairs have removable parts and fold to fit easily into cars. Due to this portability, a design feature originally implemented to accommodate home use, the wheelchairs get targeted for theft. The removable parts contribute to them being unsafe or inoperable as a result of lost or missing parts.

In the face of these complications, there have been unfortunate instances where disabled, wheelchair-bound clients, met with inadequate or unsafe passenger transportation, missed connecting flights and were left to wait for a ludicrous amount of time in airport holding areas. This is even more problematic when one considers that often, disabled passengers are required to check their own personal wheelchair so that they can be safely strapped into assigned airplane seat, which when boarding and exiting puts them at the mercy of passenger transportation attendants.

Transport workers and the clients who must depend on them would benefit from an easy-to-locate transport chair that is not prone to missing parts, breakage, or theft. Something that is a comfortable fit for both passengers and transport workers would be ideal. If the ground passenger transportation services had nestable transport chairs, meaning chairs that fit neatly and compactly onto their own rack and lock like bicycles do, they would always be in designated locations except when in use. A locking system would make them less vulnerable to theft.

Airports could cut costs and increase productivity with a transport wheelchair that was suitable for people of a wide variety of sizes. The average wheelchair is only rated to hold 250 pounds--far less than many Americans today (an average wheelchair can't even hold a football player!) Money could be saved by investing in a one-size-fits-most chair that's rated to at least 500 pounds.

Not infrequently, transport workers sustain injury lifting people onto and out of transport chairs. A chair designed to easily transfer passengers of various weights would cut down on employee lifting injuries, thus saving money on sick days, workman's compensation payouts, and hiring replacement staff.

Something easy to operate without strain or injury to anyone would make client transfers a much less stressful experience. Additionally, investing in transport chairs without removable parts would likely increase the lifetime of the chair, as missing parts largely contribute to inoperable or dangerous chairs.

Given these issues, it stands to reason that any airport that makes an investment in theft-proof, nestable, lockable, sturdy, and reliable transport chairs would see a marked improvement in overall passenger satisfaction and in their own bottom line.