Route Planner for Minibus

agrinnall

Travel the day before, sleep in the minibus overnight if you can't afford a hotel. I'm not sure what route you think there might be that would be any quicker than the one Google Maps decides to choose for a car.

Rover_Driver

AdrianC wrote: »

If it's a D1-driveable minibus, then it's 8m and 16 passenger seats maximum. Anything longer than 8m, let alone 12m, would need a D licence.

The length of the vehicle is not relevant for the definition of a minibus - only the number of seats - reg.3, The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986.

AdrianC

Rover_Driver wrote: »

The length of the vehicle is not relevant for the definition of a minibus - only the number of seats - reg.3, The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986.

It's very relevant for the purposes of driving licence categories.

scaredofdebt

Use a "normal" route planner and add 15% time?

Rover_Driver

AdrianC wrote: »

It's very relevant for the purposes of driving licence categories.

D1 - 'Vehicles with between 9 - 16 passenger seats, with a trailer up to 750kg' from the DVLA publication D100. No mention of length.

AdrianC

Rover_Driver wrote: »

D1 - 'Vehicles with between 9 - 16 passenger seats, with a trailer up to 750kg' from the DVLA publication D100. No mention of length.

D100 is not available online from any official source, and the PDF that's on several third-party sites is dated 2006.

https://www.gov.uk/driving-licence-categories

gov.uk wrote:

Minibuses
Category D1 You can drive vehicles with:

• no more than 16 passenger seats
• a maximum length of 8 metres
• a trailer up to 750kg

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/changes-to-the-driving-licence-and-categories

D1 Minibuses - Vehicles with no more than 16 passenger seats in addition to the driver and with a maximum length not exceeding 8 metres with a trailer up to 750kg. 21 See note 2 and 3

The length restriction was introduced in January 2013 by the third EU Directive on Driving Licences.
http://www.fta.co.uk/_galleries/downloads/email_news/3EUD.pdf

So we're both right - it depends on when the OP gained his D1 entitlement. If it was grandfathered in from having a pre-97 car licence, or he passed a D1 test before Jan 2013, then the maximum length does not apply. However, if he passed a D1 test after that, then it's in place. In practice, no D1-compatible 16+driver-seat minibus will be 12m+, or even 8m+...

Turn_to_Grey

https://www.viamichelin.com/

Gives the option to add your exact vehicle model if you know it. Dont know if it then gives you speed related guidance for you, but it does have a caravan option.

khcomp

Unless it's over 12 metres long, you can drive at 70mph on motorways... I'd therefore accept whatever any route planner or sat nav tells you, as they mainly use motorways as much as possible by default.

silverwhistle

hollie.weimeraner wrote: »

8 mph over 4 hours might mean an extra 20 minutes in bed as we have to set off at stupid o'clock for a football tournament

I've driven miles around England and even further around Northern Italy to play football. My experience is that you should always have left earlier than you actually did...

I'd err on the side of caution, and any extra time the other end will prove useful for stretching and warm-ups after an uncomfortable long journey.

AdrianC

khcomp wrote: »

Unless it's over 12 metres long, you can drive at 70mph on motorways...

Tricky if the minibus in question has a 100kph limiter fitted, though.