International Womens Day 2020 – London Campervan Hire

Buttercup Bus Vintage London Campervan Hire Celebrate IWD 2020

8^th March 2020 is International Women’s Day. Buttercup Bus Vintage Campers is a female led, London campervan hire business, based in Croydon – that has been trading for over 10 years now – and so we felt that we should write a little post in acknowledgement of this day, and to give you an insight into behind the scenes.

We are used to posting beautiful pictures of our campervans, and our lovely clients enjoying them – but behind the scenes, there is a lot of hard, physical work that goes into the running of things. We decided to share some photos from the super talented Desiree North Photography – who came down to take some pictures at our workshop. (They may be posed – but represent our typical days! Given the staged posing, the photos contain flaws in how you would properly conduct these tasks…. I may have bright pink nail varnish on display….. but normally there would be some protective gloves on. Can you spot any other errors? Heh heh – Let’s make this a game!)

Men and women working on the VW campervans and beetles

We currently have two campervan restorations underway – and the London Campervan hire workshop has been getting filthy with dust, as vehicle bodywork has been sanded back in preparation for paint jobs with our suppliers… not to mention another little top secret project we have underway – more info on that in a couple of months!

We have an incredible team of suppliers that have looked after us for years, maintaining our vehicle mechanics, providing welding and paintshop services, transporting etc. I’m scratching my head to think if there are any female industrial suppliers that we work with – and actually, there are none. It is certainly a male dominated space – something that will hopefully change in the future, as the uptake in women studying STEM subjects is on the rise, alongside the increasing interest in electric vehicle conversions and the opportunities that will open. You can read more about that in this blog post that I had published last year for IWD 2019 – asking people to open their eyes over the roles that women can play in the motor industry, and the recognition of inspirational role models around the world.

At Buttercup Bus Vintage Campers, we have a good mix of male and female drivers and operations managers. They are all selected because they are brilliant – gender does not come into it. We all get our hands dirty – be it topping up oil, hooking batteries up to drip feeders, cleaning the vehicles inside and out, stripping and applying bodywork graphics (a killer for your fingernails!), transporting supporting kit in pickup trucks or going through vehicle routine checks. It’s not just adding pretty flowers, bunting and ribbons (although we do spend a lot of time on those lovely tasks too!)

There is also a lot of heavy kit to lug about – generators, campervan photobooth wooden units, seating or beer dispense systems for our promo work. Our kit is designed to be easily transferred between vehicles to allow us to flexibly respond to client requirements – but my gosh, it involves some heavy lifting! Will I still be doing this in my old age? I hope so….. I might just need a few tools to assist me, like the excellent vehicle skates we use to push our fleet around in the workshop!

Shout out to our peers on International Womens Day

So, here is a shout out to all those women, working in an under-represented industry, whatever that role might be. When it comes to work, nothing beats doing something that you are passionate about – especially when you get to work and learn from a brilliant team of people, male or female, that share your same passion.

Thank you, Desiree, for coming over to our London Campervan hire workshop, and taking these photos – absolutely love your work, and privileged that you would take the time to take part in this project with us.