We have been in operation for over 40 years and have won numerous awards, however there are many people, even within our local community who don’t know what we do or that we even exist!

In this article, BAS Operations Director, Carl Birkin, gives us an insight into one of the many types of jobs that BAS completes on a daily basis…..

“At BAS we manufacture, supply and fit a wide range of vehicle adaptations to enable disabled drivers and passengers to have the freedom of driving. It is always surprising to me when even people in our local village don’t know what we do, or that we even exist, so I thought it would be good to give the local community an insight into what exactly is involved in a typical job for us.

Very often we get customers calling us, asking if they can have an adaptation fitted to help them get their wheelchair/scooter into their vehicle. In this particular example the customer emailed me and asked if he could get his large buggy into a Volkswagen T5 Transporter. The first job is to always ask for measurements, so that we can consider all suitable solutions. At this point I also asked how he was going to get into the vehicle and what adaptations he currently uses.  Based on this, I recommended a BAS Transfer Plate and a Push/Pull Brake/Accelerator.

After several hours of research, I found a platform lift wide enough to take the buggy and that was suitable for the VW T5.  I then looked at different Push/Pull options for the customer and decided on the Cowal Push/Pull Brake/Accelerator, based on the fact that the customer needed maximum space to enter the vehicle. We had previously fitted a BAS Electric Transfer Plate to this specific vehicle, so I knew this would be no problem.

Next stage is for the customer to have a demonstration of the products and make sure they are happy with them before ordering the parts. Although offered to him, this particular customer was happy to proceed without the demo, so we ordered the parts and once they arrived, we collected the vehicle and our engineers fitted all three products.

Once completed, we took the vehicle to the customer and this was actually the first time meeting him as all prior communication had been done via phone and email.  At this point we went through all the adaptations with the customer and made sure he was confident using them all. Fortunately, the customer was extremely happy and all the buggy fitted perfectly (it was a snug fit, but it worked well). This is always the ‘heart in mouth’ moment when you have everything crossed hoping that you got your measurements correct, but luckily it all worked out perfectly! At the customer’s request we actually fitted an additional grab handle on the day of handover, to assist the customer when using the transfer plate.

The customer took it out for a test drive to his golf club and was extremely pleased with the drive. We had one very satisfied customer and he expressed how grateful he was for the level of effort and professionalism BAS had shown in getting his vehicle ready for him!”

This is just one example of the types of jobs BAS complete on a regular basis. If you would like any more information, please feel free to give us a call on 01925 640730 and one of the friendly team will be more than happy to help!