How To Drive A Minibus Legally
This came up in a meeting a few weeks ago, and so I thought I'd write it up to clarify it. Here's how you can drive a minibus in the UK legally. This is a slightly more human version of the Department for Transport's Guidelines On Incidental Driving Of Minibuses (pdf). This is not legal advice, so if any of this is something you have to deal with read the legal documents yourself and contact the DVLA and your insurance company if you're still in doubt.
A minibus is defined as a vehicle between 10 and 17 seats (including the driver) and under 3.5 tonnes unladen (or 4.25 tonnes if you've got disability access features installed like a lift). This is the only type of vehicle we're dealing with in this article. If it's bigger than that then it's a bus, and you'll need a full D licence (which requires an extensive test) to drive it. If it's smaller than that it's a car. You should learn to drive one of those before you drive a minibus.
There are three ways you can drive a minibus:
If you hold a full D or D1 licence (which can only be achieved if you've actually taken a test to gain the D or D1 licence) you can drive anyone in a minibus for any purpose you want and you and the company or charity you work for can receive payment for it.
If you passed your regular car practical driving test before 1 January 1997 then your have a D1 (101) licence. The 101 means not for hire or reward. This means you can do everything a D1 licence holder does, but you CANNOT charge anyone for using this service. So you can't ask young people to pay £5 for fuel costs for the trip, or pay extra for what they pay for youth club. This means that you need to make it clear that any money you receive when taking young people on a trip or picking them up is for the activity not for the use of the minibus. So, if your club charges £1 entrance fee to everyone and you pick up some young people in the minibus and they have to pay £1 like everyone else, that's fine, but if they have to pay £2, or £1 before they get in the bus, you're probably in the wrong. Also residential fees should be clear that you're paying for the residential centre and not for the transport.
If you passed your regular car practical driving test on or after 1 January 1997 then you don't have any sort of D1 licence. However, you can still drive a minibus under certain conditions. If it is for non-commercial, social purposes, are over 21, have passed your car test for more than 2 years , and are driving as a volunteer then you can drive a minibus. Exactly as above you CANNOT charge anyone for using this service.
There is a way that you can charge young people for using the minibus under the last two sorts of licences. You can apply for a Minibus and Community Bus Permit (a section 19 permit) which entitles you to make a charge for the young people. You've got to be an organisation involved with education, religion, social welfare, recreation or other activities of benefit to the community to get this, but if you work for a youth club, that's probably not too hard to prove. I've got no idea how you get one of these licences. Ring up the DVLA and find out (0870 240 0009).
Remember, regardless of how you get to drive a minibus it has to have at most 17 seats including the driver and weight under 3.5 tonnes! If it's over either of those things you've got to find yourself a full D Licence (or just hire a coach).
Grey areas:
These are areas where it seems that law is not quite clear or there seem to be loopholes. Ultimately this'll only come up if you get in an accident and the police or an insurance company try to establish whether or not you're actually insured. It's one of those things that unless it's gone to court before, no-one will be that clear on what happens. Ring up your insurance company and the DVLA if there are any doubts and check.
A paid worker without a D1 licence (of any type) drives a minibus "on their free time". If you're driving a minibus and stating that you're doing this outside of your regular working hours and going unpaid for it, then it seems like that is legitimate but I'm not sure how that'll hold up in court. If you're going to do this then you should formally let your boss or management committee know this in paper, so that it's abundantly clear that this is in your free time and ring up your insurance company to check you're covered first. Even then, it might not hold up in court if you are in an accident.
I've got no idea how this applies to government services. This law seems to exist for the charity sector, not for the government sector.