Taxi Driver Online

That would be Eight passenger seats?

I thought all the Big Bus Companies were Subsidised by the Something called BSOG Bus Service Operators Grant And most of their runs are over £28K...and that's why we see 16, 25, 32 45+ seater buses going about with sometimes only the driver onboard..fechin waste of money.

many routes are put out to tender by CC's, some get grants, plus some travel is vat free, i never worked out where that left operators but 1 coach owner with 1 vehicle used to do the old dear runs to the coast told me it was good for him, i think he only had to get a rebate on his vat payments but not charge vat, also im sure theres a vat or duty rebate on subsidised bus routes

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

The BSOG on registered bus services has recently been cut substantially, making a lot of marginal bus route unviable. Socially neccesary routes are usually put out to tender by local authorities and it is these that are contested by CT groups; these groups use "unpaid" drivers who don't usually have pcv licences; the CT group usually has a huge subsidy from government and can therefore compete unfairly with any other bus operator who tenders.

There is 0%VAT on all travel on vehicles with more than 10 passenger seats; yes, schools will need to employ pcv drivers for their mininuses as will CT groups...

BSOG is currently around 40p a litre on service mileage only on registered bus services, not express services or private hire. Remember double deckers only do about 6mpg; the older buses used to do about 10mpg, but with air suspension/lights on all day/euro5 engines, all this adds up on the fuel side. Also, there's thousands of pensioners who get free travel and the bus companies get very little for accepting their passes, but that's another argument.

What has happened now is that routes that were tendered a couple of years ago whne fuel was 1.20 a litre with 46p a litre rebate are now grossly uneconomic and these are likley to be withdrawn soon. Most of these are in rural areas, so thousands more will be unable to get about.

All pcv drivers now need a driver certificate of professional copetence, that's another £500-odd for a week's course.

Isn't that 9 or more passenger seats?

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Grandad,

Something about that figure, I can't remember!

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

That 10 seats includes the driver.

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Grandad,

Thank you, nothing about passenger seats!

The booklet that I have got somewhere states 2 different things but they are basically the same. One part states as above but the other states more than 8 passenger seats plus the driver. It also states built or adapted to carry more than 8 passengers. That was how some limo operators managed to run Lincoln Towncars with 8 passenger seats in the back with the extra passenger seat in the front next to the driver although this was usually removed.

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Grandad,

ISTR the VAT regulations state 10 or more passenger seats. I recall seeing it somewhere recently.

If any stretch tackywagon has more than 8 passenger seats then it needs to be a psv.

The VAT element is 10 seats or more, nothing to do with how a vehicle is licensed. The only excemption is a vehicle adapted to carry whhelchairs which otherwise would have had 10 or more seats. I know this to my cost after a battle with the vat man a few years ago.

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you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

You can zero-rate the transport of passengers …



■from a place within to a place outside the UK or vice versa to the extent those services are supplied in the UK (see section 3)
■in any vehicle, ship or aircraft designed or adapted to carry not less than 10 passengers to the extent those services are supplied in the UK (see section 4)
■on any scheduled flight (see section 5)
■with disabilities in some cases (see section 6)
■by the Post Office Company (see section 7).
■to, from or within a place of entertainment, recreation or amusement or a place of cultural, scientific, historical or similar interest, if you are also the person supplying the right of admission to that place (see section
■in any vehicle between a car park and an airport terminal, if you are also connected with the person providing the car parking (see section
■in an aircraft when the flight is advertised or held out to be for the purpose of providing entertainment, recreation or amusement, the experience of flying or the experience of flying in a particular aircraft (see section .

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPort ... t#P17_1417

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you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

You need to read paragraph 4.1 in this document.
It states "you can zero rate domestic passenger transport in any vehicle, ship or aircraft that has at least 10 seats, including those for the driver and crew."

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Grandad,

Back to the original post, this link has cropped up following a local council meeting at which a spokeswoman from this outfit gave a presentation:

http://volunteershepway.co.uk/index.php ... 5&Itemid=6

Drivers get 45p/mile from home to venue, wait and return; they don't need any additional licences; no H&R insurance; no additional safety checks; they have over 700 clients who make over 10,000 journeys a year, and they're doing the local licenced trade out of all this work.

THAT, my friends, is the extent of the problem in my area alone. Multiply that by the amount of voluntary car schemes in the country and it is a huge dent in our incomes. But then with the prices some of the licenced trade charges, they might be better going on one of these schemes, at least they'd get more per mile than they do for airport runs @ 40p a mile.

All the while there's mugs out there who are prepared to work for nothing, the government will benefit from it by not having to pay the real price for services, yet will quite happily reduce the benefits of those volunteers and increase their taxes, either directly or indirectly. They must be total mugs for doing it.