T-cycle: a service for CUHTec members
For various good practical reasons telecare service providers often have surplus inventory that they need to dispose of. This equipment may have been used by clients or surplus stock that has never been used. Storage costs can be very considerable but members are rightly loathe to simply dispose of this equipment as landfill, indeed for certain kinds of electrical equipment this can be expensive.
T-cycle follows the highly successful Freecycle model. Someone with telecare or free-standing assistive technology to dispose of "offers" it on the Offers Page below. Any CUHTec member wanting to take some or all of the equipment contacts the "offeror" and arranges to collect it. There is no sale or payment involved, the item is accepted in its condition at the time and the offeror has no liability or service commitment. The taker is responsible for all the costs of collection, and any repair or reconditioning if necessary.
When the equipment is taken the offeror marks it as such on the Offers Page and we remove it from the list.
There is also a Wanted Page that works in the same way which may be particularly useful for organisations wishing to obtain stock that can no longer be obtained through standard sources.
The potential benefits for CUHTec members using T-cycle are:
- the offeror avoids storage and insurance costs;
- the offeror disposes of unwanted inventory without cost or liability;
- the offeror seeks to comply with the environmental codes adopted by most local authorities and RSLs;
- while there are costs to the taker for collection, and possibly reconditioning, these will generally be less than the costs of buying from a company;
- offeror and taker have the opportunity to share best practice and experiences with this and other telecare equipment building a stronger mutually supportive telecare community.
