Dial-a-Journey is a door to door transport service for people who have a mobility problem, and who cannot use conventional public transport. The service is provided and fares subsidised within the operating areas of Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannanshire Councils. You will see further information on our services pages.

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Introduction Dial-a-Journey first started in business in 1986 with the aim of providing affordable and accessible transport for residents of the Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannanshire Council areas. We have grown from two buses donated to us and staffed by participants in the Manpower Services Scheme to a 24 vehicle operation, with 40 full and part-time staff in our Dial-a-Journey and Shopmobility services. We would not be able to provide all of our services without the combined support it receives here in the Forth Valley area. We are a charitable company and are mainly funded by the three local authorities with additional and much valued support from the Order of Malta (an international organisation who aim to provide relief and care for those in need around the world). Demand for Dial-a-Journey and Shopmobility services has grown considerably in most recent times, and we aim to be around for a long time yet. We look forward to welcoming you on board with us in the future. Back to top of page

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Fundraising - How You Can Help

Although Dial-a-Journey is part funded by our local authorities, these funds provide funding for specific services that support around 10 vehicles and some of the support costs involved in delivering services to the users of our services.

As you can see from our services page, Dial-a-Journey and Shopmobility provide a much wider range of services than would be possible without the much valued support from our local authorities, and many of thousands of our services users have benefitted from this over the year's.

Through our other activities, such as training and private hire work, we have been able to provide more vehicles, items of mobility equipment and employ more staff on the ground to deliver the services in a safe manner with high quality standards.

What we need to fundraise for
A fairly standard wheelchair accessible minibus costs in the region of £50,000, with smaller vehicles costing around £20-£30,000. To replace our fleet of vehicles over a 8 year lifespan, we need to replace at least 2 vehicles per year at a cost of al least £100,000. As you can see this is a fairly big sum.

In addition, our current premises are rented, and we we know that we have to find a new operating base by 2012. It's our aim to fundraise to buy our own premises to give us long term security, and allow us to build on our range of services. Over the last 10 - 12 years, we have moved 4 times, and are now facing our 5th, incurring heavy costs each time. Buying of our own base will give us stability, and not distract us from providing the service to our users in the best way we can.

We aim to continue this in the future, and examples of how additional income has been received are:

• Sponsored wheelchair walks
• Service User relatives and friends running in marathon's
• Private hire work
• The Order of Malta annual fundraising ball in Edinburgh
• Training and Consultancy work
• Corporate Donations
• Private donations and legacies

How can you help
We clearly need financial assistance to maintain our services, and achieve our aspirations, but don't be put off if you are not in a position to help financially.

Many people have given us "leads" or helped with ideas over the years, that have provided excellent contacts, allowing us to grow our activities, or steering us in a different direction.

If you feel that you have any information that would be of help to us, please contact either our Chief Executive, Duncan Hearsum, or Heidi Anderson, our General Manager by e-mail duncan@dial-a-journey.org or heidi@dial-a-journey.org

If you can help financially, you can make a donation by downloading our donations form. If you are a taxpayer, you can boost the sum by 28p in the pound, by making a gift aid declaration on the form.

Any help or assistance you can give would be most welcome.

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