The rule that gives a 12-day dispensation from starting a weekly rest for a coach driver on tourism work is an established part of hours regulations. It recognises how such duties often involve several days of modest, if not minimal, driving. The position has been put to good use by many operators, but for those based here, only when their drivers travel abroad.
How Brexit fell meant that extension of the 12-day rule by the EU to capture domestic tours did not find its way to the UK. That is a source of gross frustration to many coach operators in the tourism field, but traction with the Department for Transport in achieving the same outcome remains difficult.
Coach policy expert Andy Warrender of RHA believes that amending the position will not be simple. Former Confederation of Passenger Transport man Mark Purchase adds that the manner in which EU drivers’ hours rules were written into UK law during Brexit was clumsy, hindered those involved lacking a full understanding of needs specific to coach drivers.
None of that will be comfort to operators finding themselves bound by the rule’s approach as it stands. How the present position relates to fair competition between domestic coach operators and those in other nations also bears consideration.
There is not even a safety argument to be made. If it is safe to utilise the 12-day rule when in Ireland, France or anywhere else in Europe, so it is in the Scottish Highlands or Devon and Cornwall. One operator notes that domestic tours can be easier for the driver than those abroad with the accompanying need to cover greater distances.
Use of the term ‘occasional service’ is no doubt deliberate to prevent the 12-day rule being leveraged on scheduled duties where drivers are pushed hard every shift. The safeguard is thus already there, but willingness on the part of those who can effect change is lacking.
An operator familiar with lobbying that has already been done towards exacting the desired amendment in the UK adds that proposals were developed and put forward, but momentum stalled after the 2024 general election.
That is similar to the fate of work around the 50km, regular service restriction on young PCV drivers – something that following the same kind of hiatus recently came back to the fore after industry pressure, with a strong hint that it will be dropped entirely.
Should that happen, it would give the coach industry what has long been sought. Roads and Buses Minister Simon Lightwood has claimed to be keen to listen to the sector, although the alacrity of his department in responding to key policy calls by representative bodies has been questioned.
Nevertheless, that the 12-day rule exists at all recognises the specific work patterns of a coach driver on tour and how they differ in mileage and duty length terms from HGV pilots and staff on scheduled services.
That gives a valid and uncontroversial basis from which to go further, as the EU has shown. Lobbying must continue. If it does, the coach industry may well get what it wants eventually.
