The Government Car and Despatch Agency (GCDA) was an executive agency of the Department for Transport, responsible for providing logistics services to the United Kingdom government and wider public sector. It closed on Sunday 30th September 2012 following discontinuation of its despatch services earlier in the year. All Government Car services were closed as of that date, with the exception of ministerial transport which transferred to the Department for Transport together with the supporting workshop services.
GCDA was split into two businesses: Government Cars and Government Mail. Government Cars provided cars and drivers to government ministers and ran other people-movement services for the wider public sector. Government Mail (formerly known as the Interdespatch Service) provided inter-departmental mail and package movements, and a secure courier service for the wider public sector.
Famous quotes containing the words government, car and/or agency:
“It is a maxim of wise government to treat people not as they should be but as they actually are.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“I marched in with the men afoot; a gallant show they made as they marched up High Street to the depot. Lucy and Mother Webb remained several hours until we left. I saw them watching me as I stood on the platform at the rear of the last car as long as they could see me. Their eyes swam. I kept my emotion under control enough not to melt into tears.”
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“It is possible that the telephone has been responsible for more business inefficiency than any other agency except laudanum.... In the old days when you wanted to get in touch with a man you wrote a note, sprinkled it with sand, and gave it to a man on horseback. It probably was delivered within half an hour, depending on how big a lunch the horse had had. But in these busy days of rush-rush-rush, it is sometimes a week before you can catch your man on the telephone.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)