Code ready 'soon'
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ANAL DETAILS of the Bus and practice for coach driving were closed for press this week.
The code, which is being compiled as the industry's side of the bargain that increases the speed limit to 60mph on dual carriageways and maintains the 70mph motorway limit without a third lane ban, is still expected to be in force by Easter, and a draft is in Department of Transport hands.
It covers the standard of driving by coach drivers, and will extend the use of tachographs to all scheduled coach services, including those run on motorways and dual carriageways. Strictly, scheduled express services of any length are exempt from tachograph rules.
Among the matters still to be resolved is how to distribute the code to all coach and bus operators. One possibility would be for the Department of Transport to do this, using operator licensing records.
All eight Traffic Commissioners' chairman were meeting this week, and a draft code was among the items expected to be on their agenda.
Meantime, the National Bus Company has produced a training film on motorway driving, for showing to its coach driving staff. The video was made with the help of the Institute of Advanced Motorists and looks at potentially hazardous situations on motorways.
It shows each situation, including dealing with a frustrating "middle lane crawler" from a coach driver's point of view and analyses each incident and the way the driver coped.
NBC wants its staff to be Coach Council's voluntary code of still being hammered out as we aware that coaches are not always the most popular vehicles on the motorway and that thet are large and very prominent.
The film is not specifically about speed although its release is timed to coincide with the introduction of the BCC code.
NBC has already announced that its operating companies will be applying the code. It is backing up the code with its own poster campaign aimed at its drivers.
They will be displayed at garages and depots.