A Safety Check worth remembering

Have you ever been asked to drive a minibus as a volunteer, school teacher or part of your job transporting fellow colleagues to and from work?

You could, on separate occasions be asked to drive two identical looking minibuses. Nevertheless did you know that, depending on; the status of the owner, whether or not passengers are paying fares, the weight of the minibus or when you passed your car driving test, you could be driving legally one day but then illegally the next?

Responsibilities

You may only be armed with a car licence, but the responsibilities don’t stop there. Just like your professional bus or coach driving counterparts, “You” as the driver also have additional obligations over and above from that of driving a car. These include daily walk-round checks to ensure that the minibus you are about to drive is in a safe and roadworthy condition.

Fitness to drive

However, the condition and roadworthiness of the minibus is not the only concern. The condition of “You” and your fitness to drive, how long you’ve been behind the wheel and whether your sacrificing rest time in order to juggle minibus driving in addition to any employment commitments, are also important factors.

Employers, organisations and drivers

As an employer or organisation operating a minibus, ensuring that all drivers understand these responsibilities is a statutory obligation. Simply assuming that drivers “already know what their doing” would be a risky assumption that could leave you jointly responsible if anything were to go badly wrong.

Therefore, drivers who just pick up the keys, jump in the seat and drive off unaware or refuse to undertake any safety obligations and owner/operators who fail to inform and train their drivers of these obligations will be exposed to a high risk of serious accidents, court prosecutions or being left without a driving licence.  

…Make it a safety check worth remembering.

Next: Do you understand the regulations and responsibilities
of driving or operating a minibus?

Minibus “Safety-check” reference guide:

• A Safety Check worth remembering
• Regulations and responsibilities of driving or operating a minibus
• Statutory safety checks before driving a minibus
• Operating your minibus is in a safe and roadworthy condition?
• Are you physically fit to drive a minibus?
• The “Good Practice” course of action
• Can I legally drive a Minibus?
• Adding a new PCV category to your licence
• Operator Licencing
• PSV 437 Operator Licencing (opens new window)
• PSV 385 Minibus operating for voluntary groups (opens new window)
• Safe Operators guide (opens new window)
• Drivers’ Hours & Tachograph regulations (opens new window)
• VOSA (Vehicle & Operator Services Agency)
• Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness ( opens new window)
• Minibus Walkaround Check Poster (opens new window)
• INDG 382 Health & Safety, Driving at work (opens new window)
• Minibus Road Safety Training