Driver roles and responsibilities

Drivers are divided into three levels of service – T1, T2 and T3. T1 level service involves a vehicle and driver under the guise of an Olympic family assistant, which is allocated to a VIP or dignitary.

“That assistant is required to support the individual while they are in the UK and that may include translation services, with language skills identified during the recruitment process,” Fryer says.

T3 vehicles supply a service to more than 6,000 people and supports more than 60 destinations.

It works in two ways, with an ‘on demand’ service provided at key venues where a rank of vehicles enables clients to walk up and take the first available.

It also includes a ‘request for transport’ service, where individuals can contact the call centre to book a vehicle.

The T2 service operates a ratio of two or three clients to a vehicle.

They provide specific services to the sport technical delegates and to IOC working groups such as the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Fryer adds: “At any one time, we will have around 400 drivers working in the T1 fleet, 220 for the T2 fleet and 700 with the T3 fleet.”

The fleet becomes operational on July 9 with the Olympic Games officially starting on July 27. Drivers work on a rolling rota until September 15, nearly a month after the Paralympic Games finishes.

Keeping the fleet moving

During the 10-week operation each depot is responsible for managing its individual vehicles, which will all be fitted with tracking devices.

These are monitored locally, as well as at a transport operations centre, which manages all element of transport, including fleet.

“It enables us to get an overall picture of the fleet and focus on any specific vehicle if a particular problem arises,” says Fryer.

“There is also a transport co-ordination centre set-up by Transport for London, which has representation from all of London’s transport agencies, and we give them the ability to see all our vehicles as well.”

Fryer has worked closely with BMW to put a support plan in place, which includes Mondial Assistance as BMW’s recovery agent.

“We’re tailoring some elements of their service to provide an Olympic solution and in case a vehicle needs to be repaired or recovered we’ve identified dealerships where we can get support.”

Meanwhile, fuel will be provided by LOCOG sponsor BP through its network of refuelling stations with drivers using fuel cards.

“We’ve worked closely with BP to identify particular sites we will use to make sure they’ve got the capacity to accommodate our traffic."