Coming to an Olympics near you...

Last Thursday I attended the ‘launch’ of the London Olympics car fleet. This was a press conference in a Westminster BMW dealership, because the German firm has the contract to supply around 4,000 vehicles for use during the Games. It’s providing a variety of its cars and motorbikes – plus a few MINIs – to ferry athletes, officials and media around the Olympic Park and other venues further afield. To me, the cars aren’t really the interesting bit. I’m more fascinated by the human interest story behind the logistics of it all. How do you train 7,000 volunteer drivers? They can’t go all day so where do they head for a coffee and the loo? Where are the cars refuelled? Where do they go at night? Who is going to clean them? The short answer is that there will be a number of depots around the capital where all this is going to take place. It’s a mammoth challenge and I hope to be finding more in the coming weeks.