The sudden change to official guidance on the Department for Transport’s website (routeONE, News, 5 April) has taken all trade associations by surprise.
The change was not notified in advance, nor consulted on.
The revised guidance says that minibuses cannot be driven for profit on a Category D1 driving licence and that drivers cannot be paid (except for out-of-pocket expenses) when used under a Section 19 Permit or similar.
The changes to the website were made on 30 March and 2 April.
Previously organisations in the community sector had successfully argued that the ‘full cost recovery model’ meant that they were acting within the law, as overall the organisations are set up on a not-for-distributed-profit basis, and use profits made from contracted work to support their community services.
This view was supported by advice to members from the Community Transport Association (CTA).
The change in the advice – which presumably will translate into enforcement action – will have an impact on Section 19 bodies carrying out contracted work, where drivers are currently paid.
The new DfT guidance clearly says that they should hold Category D, rather than D1, licences, meaning that they would also come under the scope of the Driver CPC.
In a statement the CTA told routeONE: “We have been made aware that parts of the online information referring to minibuses and driving license entitlements may have been changed, which we heard from sources outside the Department for Transport.
“The new wording deviates from what we believe is the commonly accepted interpretation of these regulations and how they currently apply in driving a vehicle on a not-for-profit basis.
“We will not speculate further on the status of this new information until we have had clarification from an official source within the Department.”
The new official guidance is at goo.gl/M5gv3k and goo.gl/zDtK0s
