FAO Sonic - Minibus

[Luci]

The key thing is here is that the mini bus is a 17 seater.  Do the 16 passenger seat detailed below include or exclude the drivers seat?  Surely exclude as its described as "passenger seats"

Exempted passenger carrying vehicles
Holders of a full category B (car) driving licence may drive any of the vehicles listed below:

a passenger carrying vehicle manufactured more than 30 years before the date when it is driven and not used for hire or reward or for the carriage of more than 8 passengers
a minibus with up to 16 passenger seats provided the following conditions are met:
i.   the vehicle is used for social purposes by a non-commercial body but not for hire or reward
ii.  the driver is aged 21 iii. the driver has held a car (category B) licence for at least 2 years
iv. the driver is providing the service on a voluntary basis
v.  the minibus maximum weight is not more than 3.5 tonnes or 4.25 tonnes including any specialist equipment for the carriage of disabled passengers
vi. if the driver is aged 70 or over, is able to meet the health standards for driving a D1 vehicle

When driving a minibus under these conditions you may not receive any payment or consideration for doing so other than out of pocket expenses or tow any size trailer; you may only drive minibuses in this country. Drivers aged 70 or over will need to make a special application, which involves meeting higher medical standards.

[sonic youth]

i read that as well. it's about as clear as mud, isn't it?

i'm not risking losing my licence over it, so i'm willing to bend over and take it up the arse from the dvla if neccesary.

[Luci]

Dont worry mate, we wont be risking your licence in anyway shape or form.  Im going to give them a call tomorrow from work to clarify.

[sonic youth]

cool, cheers - was going to look at it properly today but didn't get chance.

i think it'll be fine though, reading it again it makes more sense anyway. depends how you want to interpret "may not receive any payment or consideration for doing so" as well

[Luci]

Well its not payment, just not contributing towards hire cost and petrol thats all.  Think thats pretty much within the law?

Its the whole passenger seat thing that bugs me 16/17 but bit pedantic considering 15 and 17 seat minibuses are the most commonly available.

[sonic youth]

aye, i can just imagine the argument if we got stopped though. a lengthy debate about semantics because the DVLA are vague as fuck

i think it'll be fine. if you could ring and check that'd be good - the hire company may be able to clarify it as well

[Luci]

Yeah they said D1 endorsement so need to see what that entails or whether its just getting it from the DVLA website!

ll let you know tomoz!

[RobertT]

Having done this before, you seem to be fine.  The payment thing is fine as well.  There's a legal thing about drinking on a bus/minibus/coach etc if it's driven by someone paid to do so when attending football matches, so if you keep it as everyone contributing then that's fine.

[Luci]

Cheers Rob, so a 17 seater (16 pax plus driver) is ok?

Its really unclear as to the inclusion or not of the driver in the "passenger" figure.

[pauld]

depends how you want to interpret "may not receive any payment or consideration for doing so" as well

That means no-one can pay you for driving it (not that they can't contribute to the cost of hire/petrol but they can't give you extra money on top) and the "consideration" bit just means they can't (for example) give you a telly/season ticket/other goods or services of intrinsic worth instead of paying you.

EDIT: AFAIK, at least this was the case before they changed the law on what numbers you could carry etc and what grade of license you needed, a driver is NOT a passenger. Like I say, they've changed the law since then but it would be perverse in the extreme to have changed the meaning of the word passenger (by definition, someone being carried as opposed to actively driving/flying/steering the car/plane/boat)

[RobertT]

Cheers Rob, so a 17 seater (16 pax plus driver) is ok?

Its really unclear as to the inclusion or not of the driver in the "passenger" figure.

Yep, 17 is ok.  You can drive and be responsible for 16 passengers (who due to drink will annoy you to death)

[Bushey Boy]

Id personally ring up James Neighbour the police liason officer at the club.  End of the day you arent lads or a group of trouble makers

[Chubbs]

Id personally ring up James Neighbour the police liason officer at the club.  End of the day you arent lads or a group of trouble makers

oh i dont know about that

you should have seen sonic at the leeds game