Having sat through a meeting with Kent County council and various Community Transport groups the other day, one outfit caught my eye, a "car service" operated by "volunteers" in the Folkestone area. their publicity mentions "membership fee"; "mileage charge", "running costs" and the like.

So mrs roythebus (a licenced ph driver) phoned them to ask about the cost of sending her "elderly father" on a hospital trip.
45p a mile came the reply, each way, and up to an hour waiting at the hospital. So that would be £13; hospital parking is £2 an hour, so the driver would just about cover his running costs.

Next question,
do you have insurance for hire and reward...
ummm...yes, we take care of that....
do you have public liability insurance....
ermmm...I'll have to ask...
if my granddaughter want to go with him, can the driver take her too?
Yes, that's not a problem.
Are your drivers CRB checked?
What's that?
Well, it's a way of checking your drivers aren't [edited by admin].
Oh no, nothing like that, all our drivers have clean licences.
Ermmm....thank you.

So yet another bunch of do-gooders driving a coach and horses through the licencing regulations with the blessing of the health authority and the councils who subsidise their activities.

At the meeting, it seemed it was all about what good boys the CT organisations are, doing Things For Nothing while the people running it get decent salaries, while at the same time doing the likes of us out of business!

Hopefully that will all end soon if Martin Allen is proved right. I just wish I had the money to fund a test case against one of that lot.

How can the drivers make money though at 45p a mile? That's unbelievable.

that is the point though isn't it. They are not supposed to be making money. They are volunteers.

Yes, but realistically no one would do it if they didn't make money. According to Nidge his local "volunteers" are clearing £500 a week. I wonder where the taxman sits in all of this. Probably nowhere.

AA running costs tables are intended only as a general guide to the costs associated with owning and running a car.

AA running costs tables have no official status and are not intended to be used as the basis for setting mileage rates for business use of private cars.

Approved mileage rates are set by HMRC and reviewed from time to time.

The AA tables are based on the costs of running a four year old car. Actual running costs will vary by individual depending on car choice, age, type of use and driving style.

As soon as it becomes obvious that they're making money/getting bigger, or something untoward happens in one of these cars with a driver who hasn't been CRB checked, they will do something about it. How can the drivers make money though at 45p a mile? That's unbelievable.

When they've got four passengers on board it's 45p a mile X 4 so they're getting £1.80 a mile. You never see them running with less than two on board.

I see. So for all intents and purposes it's 90p/mile minimum, and more if there's more people. Wouldn't that be a problem though if someone wanted to travel alone?

All it'll take is someone with enough money to bring another test case quoting this ruling.

As soon as it becomes obvious that they're making money/getting bigger, or something untoward happens in one of these cars with a driver who hasn't been CRB checked, they will do something about it. How can the drivers make money though at 45p a mile? That's unbelievable.