School Bus Operator to be stripped of license over safety wwyd?

WestonDave

To be fair to the county transport people, this verdict will be as much of a bolt from the blue to them as it will to you. Its very unlikely that the commissioner would tip them off before hand to the verdict (she may not have been fully aware of who their customers were as that wouldn't have been relevant to the investigation).


It would be a politically naïve council that would receive a verdict like this and think that it is going to get away with carrying on using the coaches on contract because of the negative PR angle. "Council continues to use condemned coach company for school transport" is probably not the headline they want on the front of the local rag! Weighed against that is the need to get kids to school for the rest of the term with alternative coaches not necessarily being readily available.


On that basis I'd be phoning them and finding out what their plans are - if nothing else a flood of concerned parents phoning will make them aware of the political need to do something. Realistically the chances of an accident or an incident is very small even with the verdict given but a bit of pressure will probably see a solution.

keep_flyin

Trying to make alternative arrangements but it's 11 miles to the school. Carmel Coaches operate 18 (I think) buses to my daughters school as well as one to the local Primary. Going to suggest to other parents who pay (rather than the ones who have free passes) that we share the transport until county come up with an alternative. School transport round here is a bit of a minefield anyway as we are rural!

We weren't overly impressed with the buses before this and have complained, obviously we were actually listened to.

Yorkie1

!!!!!! wrote: »

As the licence has not been suspended immediately then that indicates that sufficient measures have been put in place in the interim for them to carry on operating.

What has changed from your kids using it last week before you knew about it and now? If anything the transport now will be safer.

ETA
I assume that it is Carmel Coaches. If so then it is the traffic commissioner withdrawing the licence for all operations. http://www.plymothiantransit.com/2014/06/carmel-coaches-end.html

This was my reaction as well.

If the operator hadn't immediately put in place adequate measures to ensure that the coaches / buses were now road legal, a prohibition notice on using them would have been issued.

I'd therefore conclude that they are in fact probably as safe as - if not safer now - than similar operators.

The fact that the licence has been withdrawn is a wider issue.