This Blog has a Contingency

We first mentioned business continuity planning as regards swine flu back on 1 May 2009. By now, every operator will have such a plan in case of insufficient drivers, fitters, supervisors, and back office staff. They will have considered fundamental and significant business critical functions & priorities, and how to mitigate matters not only in the event of staff falling ill but if working parents need to care for ill children (or if schools close).

Their plans will show enough flexibility in coping as best they can with what might be a highly random outbreak. Lest we be lulled into complacency because flu has seemingly peaked, it’s almost inevitable that an epidemic will re-emerge in the autumn. Handling change and dealing with passengers will then increases risks for drivers. There’s a view that pupils returning to their schools will have a part to play in spreading the virus.

Which means that, by now, local education authorities are starting to consider swine flu. It may not happen but there’s even talk of some schools closing for extended periods not just because of ill pupils but insufficient healthy teachers to maintain ratios. This will have a profound affect on transport.

Within these plans, it seems that operators may yet be asked to bus those healthy pupils from closed schools to other institutions. At first flush, this sounds quite disordered and random. If it happens at all, it will need quick thinking on the part of councillors. We don’t yet know if and whether heads of “clean” schools will wish to accept pupils from “dirty” ones; or parents’ reactions. If these measures become necessary and are workable, expect something of a mini bonanza for operators if nothing else in increased mileage, as drivers and vehicles are moved around to cover needs. Always supposing, of course, that operators have sufficient healthy staff to maintain existing as well as new commitments.

And what about the contingency plans for this blog, in the event of ill health? Well, we have banked sufficient posts to ensure no interruption of service. Blogger client now allows advanced, scheduled posting. But that cannot guarantee a break if, for example, there are insufficient technicians at the server end to rectify faults that disrupt the internet. No doubt that party, too, has a business continuity plan.

Although the author has no known underlying health issues that might result in death from swine flu, the last contingency post of all, unless stopped because I am healthy & well, will reveal all, with a small biog. In circumstances of such moribundity, there'd be no reason not to...