This was the third “tips for users” bulletin, as emailed to POD’s users.
We make edits and updates to these bulletins so they remain accurate and relevant. They then remain available here on our website.
Volunteers’ gatherings
If you volunteer for POD or are interested in getting involved, we invite you to one of our forthcoming meet-ups! Meet fellow POD users and volunteers and find out more about what we get up to!
- Saturday 16th August, 10 a.m. at Mijo’s, St. George’s Square, Hebden Bridge (upstairs).
- Thursday 21st August, 6 p.m. at the Fox & Goose, bottom of Heptonstall Road — where there will be a free drink!
Improvement at Salem
There is now a white line at Salem to make it easier to judge whether the car is in the right place, leaving room for the camper that lives behind it!
Please also remember to always move the chain out of the way (don’t drive over it) and then reattach it.
Tip if a Yaris won’t start
We’ve noticed a few times that people have found a Yaris won’t start. We’ve been able to fix this when you’ve called the emergency line.
We worked to understand the underlying cause.
It turns out, it’s very easy to squeeze the “lock” button on the key when turning it in the ignition!
If you find a Yaris won’t start, it could be this, so the first thing to try is removing the key from the ignition, pressing “lock”, and then pressing “unlock” again.
And if a booking won’t end…
We’ve also found that occasionally it’s hard to end a booking. The mobile phone service capacity in Hebden, in particular, means sometimes one’s phone has a signal but can’t access the internet well enough for apps to work. The error messages can be confusing, including saying (wrongly) that the car is in the wrong location.
We’re sorry about this and are looking into solutions. For now the advice is to wait a moment then try again, and ultimately if it just isn’t working, call our helpline which can usually lock the car and end the booking remotely.
If you are delayed by this, please do let us know and we will of course ensure you don’t pay for any time you weren’t actually using!
Dent at Todmorden
The Todmorden car has been in the wars! It was caused by another vehicle. Thankfully our user was unhurt.
Since then a couple of you have been in touch to make sure we knew about the damage and to check that you wouldn’t be blamed. We’re sorry for any stress because our immediate alert email didn’t get to you all.
The damage, to the driver’s side front wing, is recorded (see photos above).
We decided not to make an insurance claim for this, because we’re very keen to keep our insurance policy premium from rising when we renew this autumn! This might sound strange but the reality is that insurance is one of our biggest costs.
However, we have also decided that just for now we will not invest our own money in a replacement. They turn out to be quite expensive, and since the damage is only cosmetic, it will wait until we are more settled, with our full target number of users. (Don’t worry, we’re close, just not quite there yet, which is pretty much in accordance with what we’ve been expecting over the last few months.)
Keeping up to date
Please remember to let us know if your details change. It’s crucial for your insurance that we always have your up-to-date address and that it matches your driving licence.
On that note, we recommend you check your licence. These days plastic licences expire and need renewing, which you may never have had to do before (paper licences did not need this). They may require your photo to be updated, for example. If you do change your licence for any reason, including to change the address on it, please let us know, and send us a picture of the new one so we can update our system.