As a longstanding coach operator operating in the Staffordshire area, I would like to point out the following: To operate a home-to-school transport contract in Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent or Cheshire, you need to be on the relevant council’s approved list of contractors.
To qualify for this list, you must hold a current O-Licence, current vehicle insurance, employer’s liability and public liability insurance of £10 million, not have declared bankruptcy, and have all members of transport staff DBS-checked.
In the event of a school requiring a private hire job doing in-between school contract times, the school can contact whichever coach company they see fit, place the booking, and in most cases the relevant councils pay the bill.
The worst-case scenario would appear to be that children get off a properly licensed school bus in the morning and get on an unlicensed vehicle with a non-DBS qualified driver, with whatever vehicle they see fit and less than subsequent insurance, and something happens.
The relevant councils must condone this practice, because in most cases they are paying the operators directly. I think that it would be reasonable to ask the councils to issue schools with a list of approved operators to use for any such transport requirements.
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