Swans Travel celebrates Rugby World Cup win
A TRANSPORT company is celebrating the successful completion of £1m contract to provide the coaches for all 20 teams at the Rugby World Cup.
The event, one of the largest in world sport, concluded at Twickenham last Saturday as New Zealand’s All Blacks beat rivals Australia in the final – the 48th match of the six-week long competition.
Oldham-based Swans Travel, which has branches nationwide, won the prestigious contract in early 2014, having had experience of other major sporting events including the 2013 Rugby League World Cup.
Kieran Swindells. managing director of Swans, which is based on Broadway Business Park said: “The organisers have described Rugby World Cup 2015 as the best ever, and we were delighted to be involved in moving the teams around the country.
“We were confirmed in the Spring of 2014 as team services travel provider for the 20 competing nations, and worked very hard from then onwards to ensure everything went as planned. 20 coaches and MPVs were each ‘wrapped’ in the colours of the teams they would be carrying in preparation for the event, and each had two dedicated drivers.
“We previously worked on the contract for team transport during the Rugby League World Cup in 2013, and that served us well. The successful delivery of this year’s tournament’s team travel requirement now gives us a platform to build on, in what has been a fantastic year. “
Swans Travel operations director Reno Peers project-managed the company’s activities over the last eight weeks and in recognition of his efforts, was a VIP guest of the organisers at the final/
Swindells said: “Our drivers have also been fantastic. They were given additional training beforehand, including a motivational speech from former England captain and World Cup winner Phil Vickery, and the feedback I’ve had from teams and the organisers has all been very positive.”
Four Mercedes-Benz Tourismos and 16 Irizar i6 integral coaches were operated on the work, of which the latter were new this year.
As part of the contract, Swans had to apply Rugby World Cup branding to its depot, and it also designed a tracking system for the team vehicles which was accessible to both its own staff and tournament organisers.
