So what did the Club ever do for Motorcaravanners?

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  • Rufs
    Rufs Club Member Posts: 4,072 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #902

    oh yes !!!!! and it has probably achieved nothing except to keep a few people from "over there" and "over here" occupied. Sorry only replied because weather is rubbish and i am waiting for snooker club to open laughing

  • ABM
    ABM Forum Participant Posts: 14,578
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    edited March 2019 #903

     Looks  like  you  have  been  drinking  from  muddy  puddles  again Rufs  surprised

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,135 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #904

    That’s as good a reason as any for posting.👍🏻

  • Unknown
    Unknown Forum Participant
    edited March 2019 #905
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  • Navigateur
    Navigateur Club Member Posts: 3,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #906

    Should one go to a branch of Wagamma to eat, the credit/debit card is swiped on arrival and one can then order whatever is required.  When all are finished the card holder just leaves - no visit to till, no queue - just go out door.  The electronics totals the bill and debits the card. So that technology would allow final departures without involving the warden.

    ANPR takes care of opening in and out barriers - though I caution against this being used to allow new arrivals unfettered access without a visual inspection as to what sort of outfit they have. Remember, plates can be cloned or stolen, and members change vehicles quicker than any registration might be updated.

    And replacing the trip units in the bollards with ones containing a smart meter as part of the ongoing maintainance is likely to cost very little more (if at all) than fitting ones without. Instantly, every pitch can be non-EHU just by not using electricity without any human intervention.

    Unbooked arrivals after 8 p.m. will probably require technology that has not yet been invented. However, something like a video link to the night watchman at East Grinsted House might be a starting point.

  • ABM
    ABM Forum Participant Posts: 14,578
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    edited March 2019 #907

    Naah, I'm  still  of  the  'Other  School'

      Without  disrespect  Navigateur  -- K  I S  S

    I  can  just  imagine  a  glitch  in  the  works  causing  all  the  clubs  entry / exit  barriers  bouncing  up  and  down  all  night  long.

    My  reasoning  is  the  rather  dodgy  IT  serving  this  site  --  well  would  you  trust  it  with  your  multi  £  thousand  'van  ??

     

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,302 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #908

    Should one go to a branch of Wagamma to eat, the credit/debit card is swiped on arrival and one can then order whatever is required. When all are finished the card holder just leaves - no visit to till, no queue - just go out door.

    Never did like open tabs on a CC, so very easy for mistakes to be made. Even more so if you leave without finalising the total amount to be debited.

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited March 2019 #909

    the credit/debit card is swiped on arrival 

    Yours might be! Like Steve I don't do open credit cards - might as well sign a blank cheque for them (I know that they probably don't do cheques)

     

  • Rufs
    Rufs Club Member Posts: 4,072 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #910

    well if you can honestly say that you have never stayed in a hotel where they swipe your card at check-in then maybe you need to wake up and smell the coffee, because we are rapidly heading towards a cashless society. Not that i am agreeing with the proposals set out in this post, cant get my head around any of them, toooooo! many, maybe we should close this post and start again, just using bullet points rather than essayslaughing

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,302 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #911

    Not sure what coffee has to do with it. Don't stay in hotels very often. The only time I have done this the account was linked to a separate card, that the hotel gave you that you swiped when buying drinks etc. At the end of your stay you went to  reception and settled the bill. So slightly different to the open tab behind the bar sort of thing, that Nav was proposing.

  • young thomas
    young thomas Forum Participant Posts: 11,356
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    edited March 2019 #912

    M, I'm sorry but, if this is what you think, you haven't understood what I've been posting about...

    none of the changes I've mentioned (quick turnaround pitches or (as you say) a non EHU option on any pitch) would be unavailable to any member...

    why can't caravanners make use of non EHU option or a short term pitch?  

    none of my posts have suggested this were a MH only excercise..

    yes, the OP has come about due to the club nailing its MH colours to the mast and, along with the increase in MH usage, it rightly asks what has the club done.....etc...

    hovever, it only took a couple of posts for most to come to the conclusion that any changes that might be made had to apply to all, even if the take up level might (or might not) vary across type..

    ive posted (at least twice) that I agree with your EHU option, this would be a real move forward...why don't you suggest it at the AGMwink

    however, rather than 'not accepting anything but.....', what I've actually been doing is to explore how other ideas (not just mine) could be implemented with a technical and process change or two....

    of course, if the reply to those suggestions is 'that's couldn't work at the club...' what's wrong with offering my own experiences of where those solutions do work, and what changes/compromises might be needed to acheive them...?

     

    and isnt CT a place to air views, discuss ideas, debate differences etc....

    if you and others are perfectly able to post contrary opinions, why can't others post as freely in support of the OP? 

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited March 2019 #913

    No idea why a cashless society should mean that I allow unauthorised access to my card. By unauthorised I mean simply access without my authorisation at each transaction. I have been in hotels where there is the offer to leave a card open. I decline as I do not find it a trial to pay separately if I choose to use the bar or to take a meal. 

    I have no intention trying to dispute a round of drinks on my credit card at a later date.

    For some reason it reminds me of a time when, in restaurants particularly, when you came to pay the bill the staff member would reach to take your card to insert into a machine on the shelf below the counter. I would keep hold of my card and say 'not only does it not leave my sight it also does not leave my grasp'. Thereby hangs a tale.

  • moulesy
    moulesy Forum Participant Posts: 9,402 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #914

    "none of the changes I've mentioned (quick turnaround pitches or (as you say) a non EHU option on any pitch) would be unavailable to any member..."

    That's just a bit disingenuous really, BB. Yes, caravans could use the non EHU option, but as for "quick turnaround" pitches, how many caravans and their accompanying tow cars would you envisage on the average club car park or LNA?

  • JayOutdoors
    JayOutdoors Forum Participant Posts: 572
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    edited March 2019 #915

    I read as and when I have time/moments and what I find interesting is that the OP hasn’t been involved in the discussion for quite some time though I may be wrong.

    IIMHO I feel we have to remember we are a club with many sites/members in the UK whereas other ‘Nightstop’ providers (UK and Europe) do not, therefore they can make commercial decisions about what they provide at their individual/particular location for leisure vehicles without having to consider ‘Members’ (‘Nightstops’/Aire type facilities etc appear to be for M’homes)  

    Personally, at this moment in time I cannot think of a valid commercial reason to spend the club’s money providing the type of ‘Nightstop’ facility the OP suggests.

  • Navigateur
    Navigateur Club Member Posts: 3,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #916

    reminds me of a time when, in restaurants particularly, when you came to pay the bill the staff member would reach to take your card to insert into a machine on the shelf below the counter.

    A slight digression, but it shows how things change with time. I've discovered that most of the take-away restaurants in my local area no longer accept credit or debit cards.  One way around the abolition by regulation of the charge for using a card - but it means my cashless business goes elsewhere.

  • Unknown
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    edited March 2019 #917
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  • Cornersteady
    Cornersteady Club Member Posts: 14,426 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #918

    and the ripping up of the car parks? playing area? LNA?

  • Navigateur
    Navigateur Club Member Posts: 3,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #919

    . . . let's not forget the dog walks as well !  Or would that be a step too far even for The Caravan Club?

  • young thomas
    young thomas Forum Participant Posts: 11,356
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    edited March 2019 #920

    playing area?....another dreamt up figment, Corners....

    youre the only one whose ever mentioned playing areas...certainly not me.

     

  • young thomas
    young thomas Forum Participant Posts: 11,356
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    edited March 2019 #921

    don't caravanners from the south need somewhere to 'night halt' when heading to the north, and vice versa?

    whats wrong with 'drive through lanes' like in some better services..?

    caravans could even stay hooked upsmile

    however, it seems that you don't want someone to consider a facility if it's only 'apparently' for 'one section of the membership'....

    yet when there are no objections to it being available to all, you don't want to use it....

    you can't have it both ways...undecided

  • Takethedogalong
    Takethedogalong Forum Participant Posts: 17,037 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #922

    😱...........😁

  • Takethedogalong
    Takethedogalong Forum Participant Posts: 17,037 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #923

    By the way, I did say that there aren’t that many Club Sites with LNA areas nowadays.......a good few pages back now..... so these are no longer there to convert.

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited March 2019 #924

    Remind me again how much you want to pay to sit on site overnight? You want a specialised pitch which will be the same size due to fire distances, Will be without leccy provided even though most caravans that I see on sites where there is a choice (C&CC) seem to choose EHU 

     

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
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    edited March 2019 #925

    Whilst there may be valid reasons why Night Stop facilities would be impractical, I find it surprising that the Club have been somewhat steadfast in its reluctance to provide "fill and drop" access if it really does want to be an all embracing club.

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,302 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #926

    don't caravanners from the south need somewhere to 'night halt' when heading to the north, and vice versa?

    whats wrong with 'drive through lanes' like in some better services..?

    caravans could even stay hooked up

    The Moto services in this area provide the facility you are looking for BB. Ideally situated within inches of the A1. Wetherby even has some very nice drive through lanes.😀 All for available for a mere £29.50. 😂You don't even get the £10 meal voucher, thrown in for HGV's. From this I would surmise that a large concern like the Moto chain don't see any benifit in it for them.🤔 Could be the CC feel the same.

     

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited March 2019 #927

    I find it surprising that the Club have been somewhat steadfast in its reluctance to provide "fill and drop" access if it really does want to be an all embracing club.

    I do not feel surprised and fully support the clubs stance. It is not, for me, a question of being all embracing. If an RV user of any type chooses to use overnight facilities that does not meet their needs that is entirely up to them. 

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,302 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #928

    Not sure why the CC would want to actively support wild Motor-homing  ( I'm not going to dignify it with the term camping which should be reserved for small tents) when they are in the business of selling site nights.

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited March 2019 #929

    don't caravanners from the south need somewhere to 'night halt' when heading to the north, and vice versa?

    In the past I might tow for 5.5 hours and take a night halt. Never had a problem booking ahead for a suitable site that met my needs. Pretty simple really. These days I choose to plan journeys differently. 

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #930

    So, can someone who is advocating these quick turnaround, transit, non electric, aire type pitches, call them what you will, advise me as to how many of these would be expected to be found on a site. Also, how many sites on the network should have them and where should these sites be located? Then advise me as to how many sites presently have the capacity for the likes?

    Finally, given that space is already at a premium, what provision in you opinion must be sacrificed to make way for them and then how these pitches could be secured prior to arrival in order to facilitate one's own touring needs?

  • Navigateur
    Navigateur Club Member Posts: 3,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited March 2019 #931

    I would like to visit the south-west of England but a major concern about the practicality of considering it is the M6 and M5 motorways, and the way in which the police treat road users when there is a fatal accident.  There are frequent occasions when the motorway is closed for six, even eight, hours and I don't want to be stuck somewhere on a carriageway for that long even if fully equiped to do so.

    An enforced stoppage of even four hours could screw up any prior arrangements to have a halt at normal site that has been booked ahead. So I would be very pleased to know that there were short stay on-demand places available throughout my journey, though how there would be a guarantee of a space being available where and when I needed it I can't understand.