Posted By Joanne Crockett We have several support staff who drive students mainly those with disabilities to various locations off campus in our college owned minibuses. The minibuses have all of the required servicing, MOTs, maintenance, repairs, tax and insurance etc. all paid for and arranged by the college. The support staff/minibus drivers are authorised to drive the minibuses and have received appropriate training to carry out numerous vehicle checks against a check list which they sign to confirm the checks were done before the trip commences. This form also enables them to raise any concerns and list defects. This procedure is now fully operational but some supports are still concerned regarding their own personal responsibilty. e.g. they check the brakes are working before leaving then the brakes fail on the trip, they check the lights are working then get pulled over by the police as a bulb has blown. This has not been helped by rumours going around of an employee from another organisation being personally sued by a parent of a student injured whilst being driven in a college owned minibus (I have not been able to find any evidence of this). Has anyone else come across these concerns before and how was it addressed? Any advice? Thanks Joanne

Posted By J Knight The whole thing with minibuses is caught up in wider issues of control of occupational road risk. Let me start by agreeing with Alan; if the buses have a capacity for nine people plus driver then the driver must have a PCV licence, as you will be driving for indirect hire or reward as the payment of college fees is what allows your passengers to travel on the bus (see http://www.direct.gov.uk...NT_ID=4022619&chk=Po3BdR). This may not be the case if your college is a charity with social or cultural aims. The college should be licenced as a PCV operator, as I understand it only voluntary sector organisations are exempt from this. As for liability. Well, the Road Traffic Act states in s40 that anybody driving or causing or permitting to be driven an unfit vehicle commits and offence. Your driver is the person driving; the college is the person cauing or permitting. So where the (criminal) liability rests would depend on whether the college was doing its bit, and then on whether the driver was doing theirs. So if there is a system for checks, and this is robust, the college may be discharging their duty of care. If the driver has reason to believe that the vehicle is fit, he or she may be discharging his or her own. At least, that's my opinion. If a driver has been sued then we are talking about civil action, and I have no knowledge of this in the context of driving. So you need robust, verifiable checks on vehicle safety, and the driver needs to satisfy themselves before they take the vehicle out, Hope this is helpful, John