Tour talk crack-down
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• Driver commentaries on sightseeing tours may soon be a thing of the past as traffic areas throughout the country start to crack down on coach operators who use their drivers to give microphone chats on guided tours.
The South Eastern Traffic Area has just successfully prosecuted Eastbourne Buses for two offences of "allowing drivers to use a microphone for the purpose of giving a commentary during the course of their town tours."
Its company was fined £100 for each offence plus £120 costs, The crack-down stems from a letter sent by Minister for Public Transport David Mitchell to the Bus and Coach Council last year. He warned of the risks to road safety of sustained commentaries, particularly in big cities, and said he intended to ask the Traffic Commissioners to be on the look out for drivers using public address systems.
Although common practice in most parts of the country, it is illegal for PSV drivers to give microphone commentaries. The legislation stems largely from the 1930s and most operators considered it a "dead letter."
The Eastbourne Buses prosecution is the first under the Act for several years but now other Traffic Areas have prosecutions in hand with traffic examiners keeping a close watch on guided tours.
PSV operators in the SE Traffic Area have responded by instructing drivers not to use microphones in future.