|
Knowledge of Funding Sources and Interaction with Funders:
- Knowing and connecting possible funding sources
- Convincing funders
- Timeliness
- Making sure that interactions between different sources of funding do not interfere with each other
- Weaving purchase of new buses into routine fleet investment
Politics:
- Changes in/uncertainty regarding the political situation/agenda
- Competition from other zero-emission buses (BEBs)
|
- Research funding sources well and ensures their criteria (goals/timelines/limits) align with your project; read the terms and conditions of grant funding thoroughly and seek legal support to do so
- Sources generally include a component of investment from the PTO, or the PTA allocated to normal purchases; useful additional sources are government (all levels) low/zero-emission and energy programmes
- Connect with funders informally or find good intermediaries or experts
- Present a thorough business case to show that you are serious about your project
- Service funders well; never assume reliable, lasting commitment
- Consider working with another site to seek funds jointly;
- Consider employing experts to seek & prepare funding proposals
- Be aware there may be issues that arise:
- from providing subsidies to private organisations (e.g. PTOs)
- about the ownership of assets purchased with funder input and
- in trying to coordinate with the investment cycle of PTOs
- Try to separate funding sources into separate sub-projects but also try to avoid feeding funds from different sources into the one item (e.g. source 1 = FCBs, source 2 = HRS, rather than sources 1 and 2 = FCBs, sources 3 and 4 = HRS)
- Consider LCC to estimate the avoided external costs via savings of emissions of GHG, NOx and particulate matter and strengthen your case; there is information available to help quantify external costs (see Table 2‑3)
|
