Shoprider Sovereign

If you had to describe the most boring mobility scooter in the world it would have several defining characteristics. First it would have to be red. Not Ferrari red or a rich scarlet, it would have to be the colour best described as 'disability red'; a kind of purpley red something like the colour of a fresh bruise and an old wine stain. Second it would have to have a wicker basket on the front. Well I say wicker, more faux wicker. Well I say faux wicker, let's just call it plastic. It wouldn't be road legal. Or transportable. It would have a top speed of 4 miles per hour. It would in fact be the Shoprider Sovereign.

The Mobility Scooter Menace (Again)

The ongoing threat to mankind posed by mobility scooters has been drawn to the attention of our glorious leaders. On January 7th the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) debated the matter; the discussion was none too edifying. Jeff Ennis (Lab) told the stories of Madison McNair, the toddler who was injured in an accident with a mobility scooter, and the sad story of Lillian Macey, who died after another scooter accident. Mr Ennis then followed up these two tragic cases with a couple of rants from his constituents, who had "witnessed near misses" and seen mobility scooters driven at "worrying speeds". Mr Ennis also quotes some interesting "statistics" about number of scooter acccidents. Sort of. The number of accidents in the category that contains mobility scooters went up 60% in the last three years (1,970 in 2006, to 3,238 in 2008), but as that category also includes ambulances, fire engines, motor caravans and quad bikes the number that can actually be attributed to mobility scooters is unknown. In fact if you factor in the the estimated growth in scooter users during the same period, from 100,000 to 300,000 you could argue that scooters are getting safer. Fortunately while he echos the concern of his constituents Mr Ennis doesn't advocate their solution - a mandatory test administered by suppliers. Assuming that a mandatory test WAS a good idea, giving suppliers responsibility for it would be a case of the fox guarding the chicken coop. Mr Ennis instead recommends making available voluntary training, similar to that offered by Great Yarmouth Constabulary. The Great Yarmouth course takes 25 minutes and is essentially a spin around some cones. Whether or not this has any real effect on the skills of the scooter driver remains to be seen. Hugh Bayley (Labour, City of York) then spoke about the need for people to be compensated when they are involved in accidents with mobility scooters, citing the "fact" that on the Motability Wheelchair and Scooter scheme

Those who get scooters under that scheme are required to insure the scooters, both for injury to third parties and for fire and theft.

This may come as a surprise to those who thought that insurance was a feature of the scheme not a requirment. I imagine Mr Bayley will also be campaigning for road side assistance to be mandatory as that is included on the scheme too. Sadiq Kahn, the The Minister of State, Department for Transport then responded in an entirely reasoned manner, thanking his honourable friends for being having honour and being friendly before dropping in this bizarre comment:

The hon. Gentleman will be aware, perhaps from Christmas presents he has bought for younger people, that it is possible to buy a remote control car that, when it comes into contact with an object, such as a table, TV or CD rack, will do a U-turn to avoid hitting that object. As a lay person, I do not have technical expertise on that, but I do not see why mobility scooters could not do something similar. I would like to look at that in the design standards and in any consultations we have as well.

Lost. For. Words. http://www.pacts.org.uk/westminster-hall-debates.php?id=21

Pride XL8

The Pride Celebrity XL8 is dead; long live the Pride Colt XL8! Over at Mobility Review they look back at one of the iconic (is that too strong?) scooters of the last few years, the Celebrity XL8 and look at some of the alternatives available now it has been discontinued. Else where they look to the present, and the scooter that for now seems to have replaced the Celebrity XL8 in the pride range - the Colt XL8. While on the subject of the Colt XL8, I thought this was rather amusing - an ill disguised rant at the practice of re branding mobility scooter.

Freerider Royale?

Not any more, nor in fact was it ever. After a flurry of activity from Niagara Health Care's (NHC) marketing department the internet is well on its way to being purged of the name Freerider Royale. The accepted nomenclature is Heartway Royale or NHC Royale. The move does in fact make sense, Freerider is a brand in its self and the only tie between the Royale and Freerider is that they are both distributed in the UK by NHC. While the move makes sense it goes against common usage, a search today on google for "freerider royale" (in quotes to match the phrase) returns 3,570 results, where as a search for "nhc royale" returns only 78 matches. While in the long run this will clarify and simplify things for consumers it is bound to lead to some confusion while people struggle to understand why most dealers don't stock the Freerider Royale any more.

Sun Mobility

If you are reading this post on The Wonderful World of Mobility read no further, this post isn't for you. If are reading it on a page from Sun Mobility then read on. I have noticed that a number of my posts are being displayed unaccredited on the Sun Mobility web site. Now I have no problem with people re producing my content, after all that is pretty much what the web is all about, but when you do it at least do me the service of a back link at least. Seeing as they have forgotten I will do it my self:

Pride Colt XL8

This was a bit I wrote about the Pride Colt XL8 mobility scooter back on the 21st of November that Sun Mobility reproduced over eighty five web sites (I know, eighty five seems like overkill).

TGA Breeze

Now I have written about the TGA Breeze several times, but our dear friends at Sun Mobility don't seem to have bothered to scrape them yet. They have however scraped the post about Mobility Scooter Price Match from a few weeks back which made it into a staggering ninety one sites. I should be flattered, and it was one of my better posts, but for some reason I'm not.

TGA Vita

Now this was the one that gave you away! The TGA Vita hasn't been written about much, in fact my two blog posts account for about twenty percent of the original copy on this scooter, so you can imagine my surprise when the Google results for "TGA Vita" lept from twelve to a hundred and eighty! It didn't take long to realise their was something fish going on that's for sure. It seems to me that they only scrape the longer posts so I'm going to have to pad this one out a bit longer. I'm at a loss what to put now, but I can say one final thing: if I was likely to be renting a mobility aid in Florida I would be unlikely to do it from a company that scrapes pages without permission and passes them of as their own. Oh and by the way, please feel free to reproduce this on your many many spammy sites.

Shopmobility Lose Scooter to an Imposter

Ubelievable. Petersfields Shopmobility has had a scooter stolen by a man pretending to have multiple schlerosis. The imposter apparently hired the scooter for a week after signing up in late summer this year using a blue badge to prove his eligability. Shopmobility have made numerous attempts to recover the scooter but the mans phone number has been disconnected and there is apparently no one at his address. Petersfield shopmobility say that the scooter was covered by insurance but in the mean time they are having to shell out nearly eight hundred pounds to replace the folding travel scooter until the insurance claim is resolved. This is apparently the first ever theft of a mobility scooter from Shopmobility.

Motability Operations to Take Over Mobility Scooter Scheme

It appears that from june next year Motability Operations are going to be taking over the Motability Scooter Scheme. For those who don't know Motability Operations are the not for profit company that manages the leases, customer services, servicing, and dealer relationships for the Motability Car Scheme. For those who haven't been on the scheme for a while, yes they ARE the same company as Motability Finance Limited (MFL). For those who only new them under their old guise this may sound like terrifying news; MFL managed to make the Motability Scheme into an expensive ordeal for many of their customers through overpriced contracts, impossible end of lease conditions and frankly second rate customer service. Fortunately they have managed to turn that around and deliver a far better product on all fronts, and anyone who is steering clear of the scheme based solely on past negative experiences with Motability Finance Limited should have a serious re-think. Getting back to the scooter scheme news, this does sound like a good thing. It is bound to drive down the costs for the user and customer service is bound to improve.