I was recently in the market for a 16-seat minibus. I couldn’t afford a new one, and I thought that I’d fallen on my feet when I was offered a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter with very low mileage, high specification and a power door. It had been used for transporting office staff but had latterly been owned by a church. The church staff had maintained it to a good standard but weren’t using it enough to justify ownership.
The pre-MoT check revealed not a single defect, so I had the tachograph recalibrated and headed to the test centre. To my surprise, the tester couldn’t find it on the computer system, and broke the news to me that the vehicle had never been issued with a Certificate of Initial Fitness (CoIF). As the test had already been paid for, the tester agreed to look over the vehicle and see if he could spot any reason why it wouldn’t pass a PSV test. He concluded that in every way the minibus appeared to be made to PSV specification.
I have since applied for a CoIF booking. Questions remain; why can’t all minibuses be checked when new to the same standard? They are all used for the same purpose — transporting people, often children. Why does it matter whether the bus is being operated by a school, charity or coach company? The standard of build/conversion should be the same regardless. I feel that I should be able to take any minibus for a PSV test.
While on the topic, I also feel that it is wrong that schools can use drivers with only a car licence to drive minibuses. They can get someone with a category D1 licence (on grandfather rights) who has never even driven anything bigger than a Ford Fiesta and put them behind the wheel of a bus with 16 kids in the back — and charge the parents for the service.
We meanwhile need a driver with a category D licence who has undergone recent training and a medical check. These schools can find retired people happy to do two hours of work a day.
When I approach retired PCV drivers, they say, “I’m not going to go for a medical, and I’m certainly not going to sit CPC courses and then keep records covering 24 hours every day to satisfy working time regulations. Why should I, when I can walk into that school and get a minibus driving job with none of those requirements?”
It’s time that the government made it a level playing field.
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