Wednesday, 17 August 2011

Can you drive a minibus - part 2



I wrote yesterday about my concerns about recruiting volunteers for community transport operators as most volunteers today only have Class B licenses and so cannot carry fare-paying passengers without first taking a very expensive PSV course and examinations to get a D1 endorsement. Drivers licensed before 1997 automatically have a D1 endorsement.

On this topic I have asked the CTA, experts in community transport development at Suffolk County Council and in several other places and I got a confusing range of answers. Most of the literature or advice I got came down into this:

A Section 19 permit under the 1986 Transport Act would cover a minibus for an elderly day care centre so a Class B volunteer driver can drive them.
Section 22 of the act covers volunteer-driven buses for public fare-paying passengers such as the Halesworth 511 service, thus a Class B volunteer driver can’t drive them.

I understood that if you run a bus and allow the public to board and charge fares, you HAVE to be section 22, so B class licenses can’t drive these community buses because under section 19 you can’t charge fares or pick up the public. At least that is how I understood it and everyone else said much the same.

However, looking further, it seems there is an “E-class” exemption to the section 19 regulations enacted in 2009 so that if a section 19 service is the only way a rural community can have a bus, then a service permitted under section 19 can pick up the public and charge fares, so long as the driver isn’t paid and the service is not-for-profit. So I must presume then that class B licenses can drive fare-paying passengers if their section 19 permit is written to cover E class passengers.

Here’s the relevant bit of regulations from a VOSA leaflet: http://www.dft.gov.uk/vosa/repository/PSV%20385%2018%20November%2009.pdf
Passenger transport provided under Section 19 or Section 22 permits

(Revised 2009 PSV 385 - 01)

Who may be carried on the vehicle:

A vehicle being used under a section 19 permit must not be used to carry members of the general public. Each section 19 permit, and corresponding disc, will indicate the particular classes of persons who may be carried.

Each permit and disc will specify one or more of the following classes of person:

A, B, C, D, etc.

Class E - Persons living within a geographically defined local community, or group of communities, whose public transport needs are not met other than by virtue of services provided by the body holding the permit;

Class F -Any other classes of persons specified in the permit.

For example, a permit issued to a scout group might indicate that only members of the scout group and persons assisting or supervising them may be carried. In that case the vehicle could not be used under the permit to carry persons who had no association with the scout group. Alternatively, such a permit may state that vehicles used under the permit may carry members of a girl guide group, as well as the scout group, which would then enable girl guides to travel on vehicles used under the permit.

If your organisation wishes to have a permit permitting the carriage of persons in Class E or Class F you will need to supply further information with your application.

For Class E you should clearly state what the local community is, for example it may be residents of a village or group of villages, or other isolated rural communities. You should be aware that failure to supply sufficient information may lead to a delay in the processing of your application or even its refusal.

Section 19 permits and isolated communities

Vehicles used under a section 19 permit may not carry members of the general public, but as a result of changes which came into force on 6th April 2009 the law now provides greater clarity about the use of section 19 permits to meet the transport needs of people living in rural and other isolated communities. The key change is the introduction of the new Class E mentioned above, which sets out two conditions. VOSA consider that, where these two conditions are met, the service is not being provided for the "general public".

First, where a permit authorises the carriage of persons in Class E, the permit will specify the geographically-defined local community, or group of communities, in question. The legislation is not specific about the size of area that may be specified, but any such area must be clearly local in nature. This will need to be considered on a case-by-case basis, but in general an area encompassing a group of neighbouring villages is likely to be "local" in nature, while an area covering a number of towns is unlikely to be.

Secondly, people are only eligible under Class E if their public transport needs would not be met other than by the services provided by the permit-holder. An example might be that of a large retail park in a town at which a number of people living in outlying villages are employed. If there is no public transport which employees could use to get to the retail park for, say, 8 o'clock in the morning and back again at 7 o'clock in the evening, a body may be formed by the employees (not by the businesses on their behalf) to provide appropriate transport under a section 19 permit, using Class E.

The Class E entitlement would only fall if public transport which would meet the needs of those employees were to be provided. So, if a new bus service was introduced providing services from the villages to a local market town twice a week, our view is that it would not affect the services operated under the permit because those services would not meet the public transport needs of the employees at the retail park. But if a daily bus service were to be introduced, serving all the places served by the permit holder from 6 o'clock in the morning until 9 o' clock at night, then our view is that the permit could no longer continue to be used under Class E for that particular group of people.
This revelation, if my understanding is correct, does not detract from my concerns though; that the PSV is far too expensive for CTOs to support and there are many areas, such as rural/urban fringes that would probably not be able to classify their operations under Section 19 E class but without them, they would probably have very poor public transport from a commercial operator.
As I have spent many, many unpaid hours trying to understand all this regulation just to answer one simple question: “can I volunteer for my community bus?” I really think the matter of simplification of regulations should be looked into or better explained by the CTA/VOSA or whichever quango is responsible.

And, given the unpaid time I have spent working all this out, it’s no wonder many in my field think the Big Society will struggle to find enough volunteers.

I will be updating my chart anon.


Tuesday, 16 August 2011

Can you drive a minibus?





From leaflets supplied by the Community Transport Association and advice of colleagues I have drawn this flowchart which, although not totally definitive, I hope conveys the same information as the chart I got from the CTA to answer the question of what a volunteer can do with their license to drive a minibus for a community transport operator (CTO).

My intent is to enable anyone manning a volunteer recruitment stall, such as at a village fete, could determine who can drive a minibus for section 19 or section 22 operations, both of which my local CTO provides, or should be steered to a community car scheme.

Without this, every volunteer has to do all of the homework I have done so far and will likely feel it is all unnecessarily complicated. I have asked the CTA to produce an official easy-to-understand chart like this or confirm this one is correct so I can publish this more widely.

A volunteer-run CTO operating a section 19 service can't charge a fare or stop at bus stops, as section 19 is for services like collecting people for a day-centre and this CAN be done by a volunteer with a B license. Any service that takes the fare-paying public has to be run under section 22* and that prevents anyone without a D1 licence driving the bus whether they are paid or not and only people licensed before 1997 can get a D1 (101) endorsement without taking the PSV test.

* although there is apparently an 'Class E' exemption for rural areas.

It is quite apparent to me from my role as a volunteer with my local CTO that there is going to be great difficulty ahead as the pool of D1 (101) entitled drivers dwindles over time because there is no other pathway at present to enable a volunteer who didn’t take their driving test before 1997 (so couldn’t be any younger than 31 years old now) to operate a vehicle on a section 22 route (one taking fares) without completing PSV training.

The cost of this training is a very minimum of £1000 per person and since a CTO might need a roster of 20 volunteer drivers per route, this is an unsupportable burden on the transport services that rural areas depend on. Volunteer-run CTOs provide vital services in rural areas where commercial operations are unsustainable.

I have asked my MP Therese Coffey to consider the need for legislation to correct this but I need to be absolutely sure I have my facts straight but at the moment this is how I understand the situation without bringing all the ramifications of vehicle size and weight into it.

I looked on the DVLA website for some licensing statistics but getting the actual numbers of D1 and B category drivers would take a FOI request but you can get a rough estimate based on that non-photo licenses are likely to be from before 1997- so D1 eligble - and photo licenses will be after 1997, so restricted to B category. If we presume similar numbers of drivers continue to be licensed and presume numbers of 70 year olds driving now will be decimated by health issues in their 80's; in just a decade's time we shall see a huge drop in available volunteers of active working age, just as the population bubble of elderly people (who will depend even more on public transport when they cannot drive) begins to swell.




Thursday, 11 August 2011

what can I drive (draft)



Here in the UK we have very complicated driving licence legislation which results to the EU trying to have the same requirements across all EU states but then having the ability for member states to opt out of bits of the legislation and the fact that the UK has, and had at the time the EU were trying to align all countries, a very strong and well established voluntary sector which relied on drivers being able to drive minibuses.  This is then compounded slightly with the size of vehicles which drivers are able to drive.

I hope the following may shine some light on to the current situation, but this is dependent on any vehicle insurance restrictions of the organisation you volunteer for and also any internal policies they have in place.  

I am only looking at permit operations here i.e. Section 19 and Section 22


Size of Permit vehicle – in passenger seats

MPV ( upto 8 seats)
(Only Section 19 operation allowed)
Minibus (9 – 16)
(Operated under Section 19 or 22)
Bus ( above 16 seats)
(Operated under Section 19 or 22)
Volunteer driver (B cat only)
Can drive
Can drive *with restrictions
Cannot drive
Paid driver (B cat only)
Can drive
Cannot drive
Cannot drive
Volunteer driver (D1 (101) cat)
Can drive
Can drive
Cannot drive
Paid driver (D1 (101) cat)
Can drive
Can drive
Cannot drive
Volunteer driver (D1 cat - PCV)
Can drive
Can drive
Cannot drive
Paid driver (D1 cat - PCV)
Can drive
Can drive
Cannot drive
Volunteer driver (D cat - PCV)
Can drive
Can drive
Can drive
Paid driver (D cat - PCV)
Can drive
Can drive
Can drive

*Restrictions being the driver:
·        Over 21 years old
·        If over 70 years old they have passed a PCV medical which shows on their driving licence with a code of 79 (NFHR) which extends their ability to drive a minibus for a further 3 years
·        Cannot tow a trailer
·        Can receive no other consideration for driving other than out-of-pocket expenses
·        Can only drive a vehicle with a Maximum Authorised Mass (MAM) or Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) no more than 3500kg or 4250kg if the vehicle has been adapted for the carriage of disabled passengers.