Straffords Coaches Limited

Straffords Coaches Limited: coach and minibus hire from Wrexham, North Wales

Straffords Coaches Limited is a family-run coach operator established in 1988 and based at Five Crosses Industrial Estate in Minera, Wrexham, North Wales. The company describes itself as a specialist in coach and minibus hire in the UK and Europe, and states that it serves customers in Wrexham, Chester, Liverpool, Manchester, nationwide and throughout Europe. It is a member of the Road Haulage Association (Coaches), Member No. 0037661000, and is registered in the UK as Company No. 10394726.

Services offered

The company lists the following areas of work:

• Corporate luxury travel
• Private hire
• Home to school transport and school and college contracts
• Airport transfers
• Day trips
• Tours, holidays and excursions

Beyond transport itself, Straffords Coaches states that it assists with planning trips and itineraries, both for UK customers and for visitors from abroad. The company says its team has knowledge of a range of cities, towns and countryside locations and experience in dealing with local attractions and places of interest, and that it can design a trip around a client's requirements.

Fleet and on-board facilities

The site describes a modern fleet of coaches, school buses and mini-buses. The About page refers to a fleet of 14 coaches, while the home page mentions a 15-vehicle fleet; the two figures appear in different sections of the site. Vehicles accommodate between 29 and 70 passengers, and the company says it can match a vehicle to the type of hire, whether corporate, school and college contracts or private hire.

Executive coaches are described as equipped with air conditioning, toilet or washroom facilities and hot drinks machines. All vehicles are stated to have seat belts as standard and to be driven by experienced, competent, qualified and uniformed drivers. The 63-seater school buses are described as compliant with Public Service Accessibility Regulations (PSVAR) 2000.

Itinerary planning and visiting the office

According to the site, itineraries are planned in detail and the company has built a reputation for planned and itinerary tours. Personal callers are welcome at the Wrexham offices to discuss bookings, although the company asks visitors to arrange a date and time beforehand so that a member of staff can attend to them. During such a visit, customers can choose the coach type most suited to their journey and meet the driver before departure.

Customer feedback cited on the site

The website reproduces several testimonials. One customer states that she and her companion have used Straffords Coaches for 20 years for UK day trips and UK and European short breaks, describing the coaches as new, modern and clean and the team as polite and professional. Another testimonial refers to transport for conference delegates staying in various hotels away from a venue, praising the coaches as modern and immaculate and the drivers as friendly and helpful. A further comment mentions help with organising transfers and itineraries, and another describes patience and support from a driver when a flight arriving from abroad was delayed by three hours. These are individual accounts reproduced by the company rather than independently verified assessments.