Charity bus not outside rules
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I hold a Category A&E driving licence issued in 1976 as well as a CPC. During the past four years I have been driving a Bedford/Wadham Stringer welfare coach owned by a local charity.
The coach is equipped with a tail-lift, stretcher, etc and is registered, taxed and tested as an ambulance and carries that legend on the outside. The vehicle is used solely for transporting groups of elderly, disabled or handicapped people in private parties financed by the charity — not for hire and reward.
It is equipped with a maximum of 20 removeable seats but generally has 17 fitted including the driver's. Wheelchair passengers are also carried by removing one pair of seats for each wheelchair to a maximum of 10 wheelchairs.
It is my understanding that as this vehicle is an ambulance it does not come within the scope of the 1990 PCV Regulations and that as such I can continue to drive the vehicle even when more than 16 seats are fitted. Can you confirm this, or do I need to obtain a Category D licence?
A You can drive the
welfare coach under your group A driving licence but if on any occasion it has more than 16 seats (exclusive of the driver's seat) you will require a Category D licence to drive it. This is provided for in Regulation 33 of the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) Regulations 1987.
A Category D licence relates to a motor vehicle used for the carriage of passengers with more than 16 seats, excluding the driver's seat. A vehicle with more than eight but not more than 16 seats comes within Category D1, The use of the word "with" in the Schedules to the above Regulations indicates it is the number of seats fitted to a vehicle which is to be considered, not how many passengers the vehicle might have been constructed to carry. There is no exemption from vocational licensing for ambulance vehicles in the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) (Large Goods and Passenger-Carrying Vehicles) Regulations 1990.