The other night I was the guest speaker at a local advanced driving group to talk about MiDAS (Minibus Driver Awareness Scheme) which is a nationally recognised course for people who drive a minibus but carry vulnerable or disable passengers.
This can range from the elderly, vulnerable and disabled that we carry, to school minibuses carrying kids to care homes and day centres. It is a nationally recognised qualification and is valid for 4 years and is overseen by the Community Transport Association (CTA) and RoSPA. I have been an instructor and examiner for MiDAS for a number of years.
Anyway, one of the downsides of driving the larger minibuses (16 seats) is that drivers tend now to be quite old as we passed our test pre 1997 and so we got our D1 licence (the licence that allows us to drive a large minibus) by default, and we continue to retain our D1 licence under grandfather rights.
When you get to age 70 and renew your licence, you have to opt in to retain your D1 which means that you also have to take, pay for and pass a medical, the same medical that HGV drivers have to undertake.
Talking to the group, there were 3 drivers over 70 who drove a minibus on a regular occasion but had not checked that they still had their D1 entitlement when they renewed their B category (car) licence.
They have not taken a medical either.
They simply assumed that all classes would be renewed automatically. Unfortunately they did not have their licence with them so I could check and were getting quite worried about getting home and checking.
It followed on that nobody else realised that you have to opt in to retain your D1 entitlement and one or two were close to that 70 year mark.
So, if they were not aware, I thought it might be prudent to provide a warning that if you hold a D1 and you are getting close to 70, drive a mini bus over 3.5 tonnes with more than 8 seats, you have to opt in to retain that D1, it is not automatic and it will be removed from your entitlements.
If you drive a minibus under 3.5 tonnes and has less than 8 seats then you can still drive on your B (car) licence.
So I just thought you might appreciate the warning. Don't fall into the trap of assuming as others have done
This can range from the elderly, vulnerable and disabled that we carry, to school minibuses carrying kids to care homes and day centres. It is a nationally recognised qualification and is valid for 4 years and is overseen by the Community Transport Association (CTA) and RoSPA. I have been an instructor and examiner for MiDAS for a number of years.
Anyway, one of the downsides of driving the larger minibuses (16 seats) is that drivers tend now to be quite old as we passed our test pre 1997 and so we got our D1 licence (the licence that allows us to drive a large minibus) by default, and we continue to retain our D1 licence under grandfather rights.
When you get to age 70 and renew your licence, you have to opt in to retain your D1 which means that you also have to take, pay for and pass a medical, the same medical that HGV drivers have to undertake.
Talking to the group, there were 3 drivers over 70 who drove a minibus on a regular occasion but had not checked that they still had their D1 entitlement when they renewed their B category (car) licence.
They have not taken a medical either.
They simply assumed that all classes would be renewed automatically. Unfortunately they did not have their licence with them so I could check and were getting quite worried about getting home and checking.
It followed on that nobody else realised that you have to opt in to retain your D1 entitlement and one or two were close to that 70 year mark.
So, if they were not aware, I thought it might be prudent to provide a warning that if you hold a D1 and you are getting close to 70, drive a mini bus over 3.5 tonnes with more than 8 seats, you have to opt in to retain that D1, it is not automatic and it will be removed from your entitlements.
If you drive a minibus under 3.5 tonnes and has less than 8 seats then you can still drive on your B (car) licence.
So I just thought you might appreciate the warning. Don't fall into the trap of assuming as others have done
