All closed-door home-to-school services should be exempt from requirements of the Bus Open Data Service (BODS) in England, the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) has told the government.
That position is within a paper submitted by CPT to the Department for Transport (DfT). The trade body says that the current in-scope position for many closed-door home-to-school services places “an unnecessary burden on operators of these… leading to increased costs, administrative complexity, and potential safety concerns.”
As previously explained by the DfT BODS team, closed-door home-to-school services that are required to be registered must comply with the Service under current approach. A BODS implementation guide on the gov.uk website notes how closed-door services that are not required to be registered, or which have been registered voluntarily, are out of scope.
CPT has put forward various alternatives to the status quo in its submission to DfT. Those include exempting closed-door home-to-school services from BODS entirely; exempting them from registration requirements; and broadening the definition of privately organised trips to include more school services.
The Confederation argues that as closed-door home-to-school services are not intended for general use, inclusion of them within BODS is irrelevant. Public release of such data for school services “could potentially raise safety concerns for children,” it adds.
Costs of BODS compliance, including on-vehicle tracking and data entry, are highlighted as a further issue, while the flexible nature of the services in question and the frequent need for changes “make it difficult for operators to consistently meet BODS requirements.”
Compelling closed-door home-to-school services to comply with BODS “is not only unnecessary but also burdensome and potentially detrimental to the industry,” says CPT National Operations Manager Gavin Miller.
“We urge the government to consider these changes to reduce costs for operators, improve compliance, and create a more level playing field for the school transport market.”
