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This article is written by Tony Riley, c/o Wish Travel and based at the company address.
So you have a minibus in your organisation/school/workplace... and you have someone with 'the licence'... and its cheaper to let them drive it but you're not sure on the legalities? You know you need training for it but you are not sure what training, where to get it and, of course, you want a paper trail for risk assessments and negating the legal risk by taking reasonable steps?
S T O P
If you have trained people using MiDAS and are now in the belief that this makes things legal.... you are very likely to be acting illegally.
T H E L A W
If you have an organisation that employs staff and part of that organisations work is shifting kids/staff/people around, the law states that you MUST run your transport operations under an O-licence scheme supervised by VOSA.
There is a misconception that organisations (schools, colleges, work places etc) can use their own drivers if they have a licence if they are sufficiently trained. W R O N G
There are TWO problems with the above theory. Firstly, unless that are a fully qualified, professional PSV driver (this means that they have actually taken and passed their VOSA category D1 or D driving test) they cannot drive. Drivers that passed their car test pre-97 got grandfather rights to drive minibuses....but look to the box on the right of the reverse of their drivers card. There is a 101 in the box. This 101 legally stops that driver from driving the vehicle in the context of his employment. If you are aware of this fact and ignore it, its fraud. If you are NOT aware of this fact, it is negligence to allow a driver with the wrong kind of licence to drive the vehicle. Interestingly, its a criminal offence for the driver himself and it will result in a Magistrates Court appearance inf ront of a judge if he is caught. Fines, bans and community service are likely punishments depending on the facts at the time. Read through your local paper. It happens every week!
The second problem is that even where the driver HAS the full, unrestricted licence to drive the vehicle, because it is in the context of his employment, the operation itself MUST run under a VOSA O-licence scheme...like the one we do.
For completion, there is an exemption to the O-licence rule under something called a s.19 permit, or a s.22 permit. Schools can apply for an exemption in some circumstances but even where a permit is granted, the drivers licence rules below still apply...
T H E R E A L L I F E S E T U P
Organisations do not really know where they stand. Everyone has 'advice' and it seems all contradictory. That is because too many people think they know what they are talking about....but not everyone really does.
Management in the organisation will want to use their own vehicle where possible for the obvious fiscal reasons. They will realise they might need an element of training before use and with the amount of MiDAS advertising out there, it is "blissful ignorance" of the rules to "train" someone using MiDAS because the way MiDAS is constantly promoted, it makes you THINK you are getting something substantial and legally acceptable in terms of 'taking all reasonable steps'.
I will now explain just what MiDAS REALLY is and what it REALLY IS NOT and why you should not use it.
MiDAS is a training package that does have its real life applications. Used properly, it does make drivers 'more aware' of the risks of driving minibuses with passengers on. It does stimulate the mind with regard to safety and it does provide an element of risk reduction when it comes to daily duties of a driver.
HOWEVER
MiDAS is almost always advertised in a way that makes organisations THINK they are satisfying the legal obligation of "taking reasonable steps" by using the training and, upon completion, that their driver is now 'legal' to drive the minibus. WRONG.
No matter WHO is providing the MiDAS training, the ONLY thing they can give you is a certificate. Thats it. Nothing else. There is NO accreditation with it, it IS NOT a vocational course and it IS NOT the minimum requirement to drive the minibus in work. If you send me an email, I will send you a certificate by return email. I'll write anything you want on it. A certificate means absolutely nothing!
Top tip - Look on the advertising of the provider you are considering (usually a website). Look for what you ACTUALLY get for your money. All they can offer is a certificate of attendance/training. Some also say that you can drive other MiDAS approved training vehicles.. or some 'bumf' like that. Its rubbish. There is ZERO entitlement to drive any vehicle after a MiDAS training course.
W H Y I S T H I S A P R O B L E M?
It isn't....until something goes wrong. Imagine the driver, for whatever reason, is involved in some sort of crash that results in significant damage. Imagine a HGV truck comes round a blind bend slightly on our side of the road and wipes out the minibus. It ends up in a hedge all mashed up and all the kids are treated for minor bumps, scrapes and cuts. Not our fault at all. Totally his... but it is routine for the Police to be involved, if only to breath test people.
Then, what happens is, the matter usually gets referred to VOSA because there is a commercial vehicle involved (or two in this case) and because the Police tend not to touch commercials as VOSA specialise in it. If it does get referred to VOSA and you are using MiDAS trained drivers, you need to dig out your defence solicitors phone number... you're going to need it.
VOSA are the governing body in all Transport Operations by road. They have the power to apply civil AND criminal sanctions to people, groups or organisations. It is routine for them to impound vehicles at the road side. They can put fines on minor infringements at the road side, big fines on corporate negligence, or, prison on serious offences. Read that line again. It isnt scaremongering.
"They can put fines on minor infringements at the road side, big fines on corporate negligence, or, prison on serious offences."
Thankfully, they are woefully understaffed and not equipped for spotting things in routine driving and so long as nothing happens, you're never likely to see them. However, once they have their teeth into you, they can be more ruthless than the Police.
In the above situation, the vehicle HAS to run under an O-licence scheme but because management had their own vehicle from the offset, it was decided to provide an element of training (MiDAS) as its a perceived minimum standard of training and it makes it look like we're being responsible employees... right? This is where that management decision is taken to task and heads will now roll.... and rightly so.
B U T T H E R E I S N O A L T E R N A T I V E?
There is. Sell your rusty old bus, employ a company to do the work and save on insurance, tax, MOT, diesel and most importantly... take no risk whatsoever!
Even if you do not use Wish Travel, ANY company that runs under an O-licence is likely to run legitimately. Dont be fooled by the cheapest. If you go with the cheapest, they are not likely to be doing things properly. At the end of the day, you get what you pay for. If you pay buttons, you'll get a rusty old bus that might well be safe but unless its a new company, they should have something better than a rusty old thing. It's a bad reflection.
Before you employ ABC company to take your kids, ask 3 questions;
- Does the company run on a VOSA Operators Licence?
- Is your specific driver a fully qualified, professional PSV driver?
- Finally, is your driver CRB clear and can they provide proof beforehand?
If the answer to any of them questions isn't the obvious, don't use them. If the answers are yes, yes and yes....ask how much. It is worth paying for the professional driver from the professional company. Don't just use any company out of yellow pages. Do the homework. Ask the above 3 questions. If you ask them and get 3 yes's, you totally negate the legal obligation on you and place that whole burden on that company.
B U T H O W D O I K N O W T H A T Y O U K N O W W H A T Y O U ' R E T A L K I N G A B O U T?
I am the fully qualified, legally trained transport manager for Wish Travel. I'm a fully trained and qualified PSV driver, HGV driver, CPC holder and I am educated to post graduate diploma level and can explain any single part of this article in detail. I am not saying I am perfect. I'm not. Nobody is in transport law, especially when VOSA are scrutinising you. Even VOSA themselves tend to offer three different answers if you ask three different people the same question but the fact is, organisations using their own vehicles and drivers and relying on MiDAS training are negligent and if they are caught, will be prosecuted. 100%.
MiDAS training is NOT the route to providing transport services within your organisation.
MiDAS training, put into perspective, is comparable to the H&S training you get prior to lifting boxes in work so as to avoid back injuries or the training you get before you use a ladder.
Don't think that it is an accredited, vocational scheme backed by anyone other than themselves. Don't think you get any reductions from insurance companies for drivers that have it, you don't. All it is is a basic risk awareness course that makes the drivers consider relevant issues and is nothing like the training a professional vocational PSV driver gets.
Dont pay for MiDAS. Sub contract to a reputable firm if, for no other reason, than it totally removes the risk of prosecution if things go wrong.
From a Wish Travel point of view, we are frequently inspected by our friends at VOSA. Our vehicles are inspected (and indeed scrutinised) for mechanical issues and our drivers are over seen by me personally to ensure professional compliance from a documentary point of view and adherence to the rules point of view.
If you still want to go down the route of training up your own drivers, you need to use a PSV training school to get your drivers PSV trained. The only one I know of locally is Red Rose Training in Farnworth. Once your drivers are vocationally trained and professionally qualified, you will then need to sort out an Operators Licence. Be warned though, this is an expensive, time consuming operation that needs a dedicated full time manager to monitor, supervise and control the operations....like I have to do here.
If you have got your licence and trained drivers, you then need to appoint a reputable mechanic and engage on a structured maintenance program. This, too, is expensive.
Once you have this program in place, you then need to make the paperwork system so that it is compliant.
I'm not going to open up all the requirements on here, you will get that when you get your CPC holder but unless you are going to have a few vehicles, just sub contract the work out and negate the risks of prosecution totally.
I hope you have found this page useful and if you want to contact me to query anything, email or phone me.
email: support@wish-travel.com
tel: 01942 200546
Tony Riley.
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