Last summer when I was at the Vosa Rejects Rally (Put on by the Yorkshire Trikers club) in aid of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance charity, I was talking with one of the YAA fund raisers and he told me that all 18 air ambulances have to pay VAT on their fuel bills unlike the RNLI who get an exemption.

I was amazed that this was the case - one essential charity was charged 17.5% (now 20%) on their fuel bill and another is not. Here is a charity that is giving an essential free service and they have to pay vat on their fuel bills - the biggest cost to them after buying the helicopter!

What does this mean to the general public?

If you fund raise for the Air Ambulance charities a 5th of what you get will be given to the government, however if you fund raise for the RNLI they can use all your contributions for helping to save lives. The exemption was given to the RNLI in 1977 when we entered the Common Market as it was then and very few, if any, Air Ambulance charities were around at that time.

I started to research the issue on the internet and I contacted several Air Ambulance Charities, but it did not get picked up. I think because it had been tried before and would require a change in the VAT rules as these are governed by the EU. That means loads and loads of bureaucracy and it would also require all member states to agree an exemption. A lot of the EU countries fund their Air Ambulance services through governments and so would not be interested.

I had a few e-mails from my MEP and she suggested that as finance budgets at the time were being debated in Brussels I should try and get the government to request the exemption for Air Ambulance charities. At this time the Euro was falling through the floor and my letter to the treasury fell on deaf ears.

I had asked my MP for help, as whilst researching this issue I had seen a question to the Prime Minister (video on youtube, May 2011) that said basically there was nothing we could do as it was up to the EU. I thought if we have to take vat from these charities because the EU says we have to, what is stopping us giving these charities a grant to the same amount? It is our governments money (well ours actually) and if we want to give them a grant for the fantastic job they are doing why don’t we?

I contacted my MP and suggested this to him and asked him to table an Early Day Motion EDM 2709 and after another few weeks he said he would (Christmas intervened). The EDM was tabled on the 9th and on the 10th February 2012. It had been signed by 14 MP’s from across all parties. I had suggested that I would open a government E-Petition.  This went live on Friday 10/02/2012 http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/29349 and at just after midnight there was over 1,000 signatures. At the time of this article 5,311.

We need to get 100,000 signatures and then the government will make time for a full debate on the issue and hopefully common sense will prevail and something will be done to change this ridiculous situation.

Ken Sharpe

Apparently everyone’s views, especially those of older people, are being sought in a survey aimed at improving road safety.

In 2010, 106 people aged 65 and above were killed or seriously injured on our roads, including 26 pedestrians.
 
Department for the Environment Minister Alex Attwood said: ‘These are chilling statistics. We know that older people are one of the most at risk groups on our roads and that they are particularly vulnerable when out walking. Improving their safety is a priority for my Department and a key part of Northern Ireland’s Road Safety Strategy to 2020, which recognises that older people will form an increasing proportion of the population here in the years ahead."

Inviting all road users to fill in a survey which is available online or that can be posted out, the Minister added: "I value the views of the whole community and would encourage everyone, not only older people, to take part in this important research. This is part of an ongoing project which will help us to better understand the issues involved and develop new ways to tackle them."
 
The survey can be completed by people of all ages and the questions will be automatically tailored to suit your age range. However, although the questions are designed to help find out about the behaviours and attitudes of road users as drivers, passengers, pedestrians or cyclists, you will note there is no mention of motorcyclists or any derivation of two wheels – scooterists or three wheels – Trike Riders.
 
At Right To Ride we are sure there is no conspiracy to exclude riders, because the content of the survey and its aims to investigate the main causes of, and factors contributing to, road collisions involving older people are more important.

Right To Rides, Trevor Baird, said, “The questions in the survey ask your views on, assessment to drive at 70+ years, a section for Older Drivers (60 years +) which goes in-depth into ability and issues for those over 60+ as a car diver, a pedestrian, a cyclists, Public Transport but not motorcyclists.”
 
However the survey does ask your views on your experience of older drivers and the data may also be used in a wider European study (the 'SaMERU' – Safer Mobility for Elderly Road Users - Project) into improving road safety of older people.
 
Like most “good” surveys at the end you can leave, “any additional comments including any suggestions on how the road safety of older people could be improved”.
 
At Right To Ride however, we are sure that riders will comment how disappointing it is that motorcycles - scooters or mopeds as motorised transport are not included in the survey and take the opportunity to comment as a 60+ rider or as a younger rider, on the issues.
 
The survey will run until the end of February and can be filled in at the following link and should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete or you can request for it can be posted out to you:

Road safety survey – SurveyMonkey website http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DOE_Older_Road_Users
 
Original Source:

Double TT winner Cameron Donald has confirmed that he'll be contesting the new Lightweight TT in June this year.

The Isle of Man TT will be the only event where Donald will race in the class and the 34-year old will ride a high-spec ER6 Kawasaki for Mick Charnock's DC Coldplaning team in the 3-lap Lightweight TT, which will take place on the final Friday of race week.

Charnock and Donald have a successful history together on the Isle of Man having joined forces back in 2005 when the Australian made his TT debut. He went on to take 11th and 16th in the two Supersport TT Races that year and picked up the coveted Newcomer's Trophy in the process.

Cameron has since gone on to become one of the TT's star performers, winning the 2008 Superbike and Superstock Races. He has also recorded a further four podium positions including the runner-up slot in last year's Dainese Superbike Race.
He is expected to be one of several previous TT winners making his debut in the new class with further announcements due on the line up once entries have closed at the end of February.

Paul Phillips, TT and Motorsport Manager, Isle of Man Government, commented:
"We've already had a great reaction to the Supertwin class and a number of the leading teams and riders have confirmed including a few surprises. It's going to be a very competitive race and represents something different for the fans this year."

The Honda TT Legends team has successfully completed a Dunlop tyre test at the Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia in preparation for the 2012 Endurance World Championship, which kicks off in April with the Bol d’Or 24-hour.

The three-day test was the first official outing for new signing Gary Johnson, who will contest in the EWC alongside John McGuinness, Cameron Donald and Simon Andrews. Donald and Andrews – who are both recovering from injury – did not attend.
 
McGuinness and Johnson put in over 350 laps and covered almost 2,000km as the team trialled a variety of Dunlop tyre compounds in the intense Malaysian heat. They left the Sepang circuit yesterday in a positive mood having achieved all the agreed objectives.
 
Neil Tuxworth – team manager; The three-day test has been very successful as we accomplished all the goals agreed with Dunlop beforehand. We certainly found some tyres that will not only work well in hot weather, which was the main objective of the test, but will also be beneficial for other races this year.

John McGuinness; The test has been terrific to be honest. I’ve never ridden such a long distance in heat like this but it’s so good to be back on the bike and blowing the cobwebs away. We’ve done a huge amount of work in just three days. We went though a lot of compounds and found some really good set ups on the front and rear so it’s been very positive. I’m  really looking forward to the season now and can’t wait to get going on the 2012 Fireblade.
 
Gary Johnson; This has been a great first test. I’ve gained a lot of experience and lost a lot of sweat – it was so hot! I’m really pleased that we got so many laps in and over the three days we have made some great progress on both the front and rear tyres. This was my first test with Honda TT Legends and it all went like clockwork. The crew works so well together and it means I can concentrate fully on my job on the bike.

2012 Endurance World Championship calendar

14 April - Bol d'Or 24-hour, France
24 June - Doha 8-hour, Qatar
29 July - Suzuka 8-hour, Japan
11 August - Oschersleben, Germany
8 September - Le Mans 24-hour, France 

We are always trying to pass on valuable information to our clients and contacts and we are also very aware that there are many unscrupulous companies out there trying to con you out of your hard earned money with various sales ploys and incorrect information.

With years of experience in the publishing world we are to expose below various common scenarios which may happen when you are contacted to advertise either on-line or in-print...

In fact much as Penn & Teller exposed the secrets of magic tricks, we are going to do the same with sales techniques...

Never trust a sales person who quotes Hits rather than Visitors!

The most common statistic which is quoted by a dodgy sales person to fool you is hits rather than visitors. An example of this may be "We have 470,000 hits a month". When this sales person was asked how many visitors they had, they reluctantly quoted 28,000. Why the difference you may ask, well a hit is not a visitor, in fact it is a figure which is found from the amount of images and pieces of text a page has. To give you an idea, we @ THE BIKER GUIDE have an average of 50,800 hits a day and 1,750 visitors.

Read more on the difference between Hits and Visitors here

It is also worth noting that some companies may have a website which covers a variety of publications and/or titles and so the figure quoted to you may actually be referring to the main website rather than the specific section they are trying to sell you into. So in this case the quoted 28,000 a month is spread across 15 titles, meaning the daily visit is greatly reduced to more in the region of 60 a day!

The original quote made you think the website had 15,000 visitors a day whereas the reality is more likely to be 60... As we are sure you will agree these two figures are very different.

What to always ask when contemplating advertising onto a website

In this order...

How many visitors does the website have? How many daily visitors in the last month?
How many daily visitors in the last month compared to last year?
How many pages does each visitor look at? How many visitors return?
From how many countries? How do you get your visitors?

These questions should give you the correct information for you to base your decision of whether or not the website is worth you spending any money on.

You should also check that the website is user friendly (i.e. could you find your business in 3 clicks if it was on there?), that it is not overloaded with lots of people doing the same thing and that it is found on search engines with a relevant search to your business.

A honest company and sales person should have these figures and information to hand, if they do not it is generally because they do not want you to know the truth of their lack of visitors, lack of growth, lack of self-promotion and a basic lack of interest from the www of their web-site - AVOID them.

Print advertising scams

A common sales ploy is "We have a last minute cancellation as the client cannot get the copy to us in time, the usual price is £1,500, would you like it for £150!" Sounds good doesn't it? Well if that person makes 100 call that day and 15% of the people believe them, are tempted by the savings and ask no questions, hand over their card details then its a good day on the sales floor.

Unless a publication is ABC audited (an in-depth examination of a publisher's records that assures buyers that a publication's circulation claims are accurate and verifiable), which is usually larger media companies such as Associated Newspapers, Trinity Mirror, Condé Nast, Bauer Media, etc..., it is hard to establish how many publications are actually being produced and circulated and to be honest many people simply trust the sales person as to what they are told rather than ask for evidence.

A common scam is to only print enough of the publication to send out to the advertisers and potential advertisers, rather than print the specified figure. Imagine this scenario "We have a circulation of 20,000, sold at WH Smiths, at over 15,000 independent retailers, via Amazon and we also give some out for free at events that we attend". So you go into your local WH Smiths and there is no magazine, you look on Amazon and there is no magazine, you ask people if they have heard of the magazine - They have not. When you next speak to the sales person they will no doubt tell you "That's because it was so popular it sold out". You ask for them to send you one "Sorry all gone" You ask which shows they have a stand at, they tell you "We don't have a stand we just go to them" - The Alarm Bells should now be ringing loud and clear...

Always ask, in this order:

If it is sold, ask for a list of where and then ask where in your area (If you are interested check with the retailer) If they distribute the publication for free ask where they do this and how many at a specified establishment (If you are interested check with the establishment)

How many do they print?
Are they ABC audited?
Who reads the publication?
Which of my competitors are in?
If they sell it, how much for?

* Note, many people will not pay for any form of information anymore as it is readily available for free on the www. If you are being sold into a publication which is not ABC audited and it has a purchase price, we would presume that not many people get to see it.

Are they honest and professional?

In this day and age the publication should be for sale on their website. They should also have photographic evidence of any free distribution.

It is common practice for publishing companies to employ a Sales and Distribution person who will have extensive data of distribution outlets, sales and returns and in specific postcoded areas, which will be available to sales teams to use to inform potential clients. If they do not have this to hand, they are usually trying to fool you with a lack of relevant figures.

Never, never agree on the first telephone call...

Most sales people simply do not give two hoots about you or your business and simply want your cash. They want to make a quick call to you, tempt you with a price and get the booking.

They do not ask you anything about your business to check if it is suited to what they are selling you into, they do not care if your competitor is next to you on the page or if you get a response, they simply want the sale.
We would advise to never agree to any form of advertising without either looking at the website yourself or the publication and to check that the person and company are professional, ask them to send you an e-mail with the details and if it is a printed publication, that in the post along with the rates.

A lazy sales person will not even bother to send you anything as they were hoping you would be charmed out of your advertising budget with their sales tricks.

What do their visitors/customers say?

In this day and age reviews and guest-books should be the norm - If they do not have a review or guest-book section, ask yourself why not?

Help others and report them

If you feel that you have been mis-sold any form of advertising from information which is in print or on-line there is the independant regulator of ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) and there is also Ofcom, where you can report any such unscrupulous companies.

THE BIKER GUIDE summing up...

We hope this article will help you in dealing with sales people who are basically trying to misguide you with incorrect information and hopefully to help you choose wisely where you place any print advertising or your business on the World Wide Web!

If you would like any further advise of anything included in this information, do not hesitate to ask.

If you already knew all of the above, please accept our apologies and welcome to our world!

THE BIKER GUIDE

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