Taxi Driver Online

can i drive a 16 seater minibus for a school which is registered as a charity ? i have d1 entitlement on my driving license as i have had my license since 1981, the minibus belongs and is licensed and insured by the school and they are happy for me to drive it, i am being asked to cover the school run for a third party for a daily fee paid by the third party who has the contract. I just want to check that i can legally drive it without a pcv thanks

probably need D1...without 101

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

If your getting Paid its Hire for Reward and you'll need a D1 less 101...a 16 seat Minibus licence basically.

Charity Drivers!!............Wheres me Barf Bag?

what about school teachers taking a 16 seater in school time, they are getting paid but i bet they wont do the D1 and DCPC....

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

Teachers, Farmers, Volunteer drivers and a few other elite groups of upstanding people will always be more equal than me or thee in this wonderful world of ours.

They are not being paid to drive the bus. The school would need to have the correct permit. Our local school have 2 minibuses operated on section 19 permits. The person that I deal with at the school has told me that although there is no requirement for the drivers to do the CPC yet, all the staff that will be driving these buses will be undertaking the CPC because the school are sure that it will be coming in soon.

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Grandad,

There are contradictions in what you are saying. Firstly you are asking if you can drive the bus for the school but later on you say that it is for a 3rd party. If the 3rd party has the contract then you would be driving for them and I would assume that you would need a PCV license and a driver CPC.

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Grandad,

According to the case of Glockner (an EU court ruling) if there is ANY financial activity, then you need D1 plus DCPC to drive this minibus, regardless of the status of the operator, charity, school, ltd company etc...

The school will also need a s19 permit on the bus and will need to use a tacho. If you will be driving for a third party, then that third party should be a licenced psv operator.

a D1 licence is 9-17 passengers, presumably a school bus of 8 passenger capacity needs no extra licence apart from B1?... which kinda makes the D1 for schools (etc) a nonsense

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

Most school minibuses are 16 passengers. They are used to take the students to such things as inter school football matches. You can't do that in an 8 seater.

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Grandad,

5 a side

I cant see school putting 10 teachers through a D1 course (£600) and a DCPC (£300).........

they will (if forced) split down into 9 seaters (driver+8), and if a 17 seater needs then to have a D1 why doesnt 8 seats require a PH/HC badge, its all H&R...

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

They don't need D1 but they will eventually need DCPC. The school that I am on about will probably be putting more than 10 teachers through the DCPC. The cost that they are talking about is nearer £600 each. Schools have a budget that includes a proportion for teacher training. The cost will be met mostly from that budget. It can't be used for anything else but teacher training so if it isn't used then they lose the money.

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Grandad,

They will need the DCPC from Monday next week!! Simples. That is when "eventually" starts.

There's more info on this in the current edition of RouteOne which you can find online. http://www.route-one.net/issues/503/index.html#/2/

The other exemption mentioned is "where driving is not the person's main job", such as mechanics, farmers and a few others. It could be suggested that "teachers" jobs do not include driving as their main job, but if teachers are specifically trained to drive minibuses, then driving IS part of their job.

As for whether passengers pay to travel, that again is immaterial for the cases I mentioned above. The Glockner definition is whether the operation is for "financial activity" regardless of the status of the operator. It also matters not whether the driver is paid or voluntary. In my view the safety of the passengers and other road users must come first and the longer UKplc buggers about trying to find loopholes in the law, the more danger our minibus users are in.

The same argument is made for volunteer hospital cars. why should they be exempt from ph/taxi regs when they are basically doing the same job as us? Does anyone ask THEM for a CRB check? Medical? H&R insurance?

I bet no teacher ever gets nicked over D1 or DCPC breaches yet clearly they get paid to work and that work sometimes involves driving a D1 vehicle, so its H&R...

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

Oh dear, no D1=no insurance=no O licence=no tacho, is the officer's book big enough?