PSV Operator Compliance: A Practical Guide for Transport Managers

PSV operator licensing

The PSV operator licensing guide (opens in a new tab) sets four licence types. A standard international licence allows the authorised vehicles in the UK and on international journeys, and a certified copy is carried on the vehicle abroad. A standard national licence allows those vehicles only in the UK. The number of vehicles is the authorisation on the licence, not a fixed fleet size written into the statute.

A restricted licence is narrower. It authorises PSVs with eight or fewer passenger seats, and vehicles with nine to 16 passenger seats only when they are not used in the course of a passenger-transport business, or when the holder’s main occupation is not operating PSVs that can carry nine or more passengers. For a limited company, that main-occupation rule applies to the company. No more than two vehicles may be authorised, except for a universal postal-service provider. Moving from restricted to standard is a new application.

A special restricted licence is only for someone who already holds a taxi, private-hire, or private-hire-car licence, so they can run a local bus service. The vehicle stays a licensed taxi or private-hire vehicle. On that local service it must not ply for exclusive hire or pick up at a taxi rank. A notice on the front must show the word Bus in letters at least 60mm high, with the route, destination, or kind of service, and a fare table must be displayed. The local service is registered before it starts. A service in London needs a Transport for London permit. At least one stopping place is in the district that issued the taxi or private-hire licence. This is not an ordinary coach licence.

Once granted, discs are issued for the authorised vehicles. Each disc shows the licence type, the holder, the serial number, and the expiry. It must be readable from outside the vehicle and must not block the driver’s view. Discs can be moved between vehicles on the same licence, and every vehicle used under the licence carries one. A lost or stolen disc is reported to the traffic commissioner in writing. Relevant changes that affect the licence are notified within 28 days. The guide publishes the fees and dates them on that page. This article does not copy the pound amounts.

Transport manager responsibilities

A standard licence, national or international, must have a professionally competent person in passenger transport operations. That certificate is the transport manager CPC. It is not the driver’s CPC, and it is not a goods transport-manager certificate. A national-only certificate issued before December 2011 can still be used for national work. It cannot be put on an international licence. Examinations since then are the international paper.

An internal transport manager is employed and closely connected with the operator, and must manage the operation continuously and effectively. An external transport manager is contracted in. The contract names the person and the tasks. Either way they need enough time, they act in the operator’s interest, and a commissioner has to be satisfied they can still do the job if they are named on more than one licence. Skills are kept up to date. A two-day refresher is one route the guide describes. It is not the only way to show continuing competence.

A restricted licence does not nominate a transport manager. The guide says the level of compliance is no less. The person responsible for that licence carries out the duties a transport manager would carry out. A special restricted licence is outside that nomination rule as well, and it has its own application path.

The duties the guide lists include drivers holding the right licence, regular licence checks, a valid driver CPC card for vocational drivers, training and competence for the vehicles and equipment, drivers’ hours and working time, defect reports, safety inspections inside the declared interval, a maintenance planner at least six months ahead, tachograph downloads, and discs that are current and displayed. The systems a commissioner looks at also include vehicle accessibility and the Bus Open Data Service.

Driver licensing

The entitlement is the passenger category that matches the bus or coach, not a goods category. Part-time, occasional, and agency drivers are checked before they drive. The licensing guide says regular checks are usually every 3 months. That is official guidance. How consent works, and what happens when points rise, is in DVLA driver licence checks for employers. How often to look, including the passenger category, is in how often to check an HGV or PSV driving licence.

Driver CPC

Where driving a bus or coach is the main part of the job, the driver needs the full Driver CPC and 35 hours of periodic training every 5 years to stay qualified. Getting qualified (opens in a new tab) sets the exemptions, including where driving is not the main part of the job. Do not treat the transport manager’s passenger-operations certificate as the card in the driver’s wallet. One is the operator’s professional competence. The other is the driver’s.

Drivers’ hours and tachographs

The limits for buses and coaches are on the passenger drivers’ hours guide (opens in a new tab). HGV drivers’ hours rules is the goods guide. Do not copy its table onto a coach. In particular, the goods concession for two consecutive reduced weekly rests on international haulage is not a passenger rule.

One passenger difference is occasional international coach work. A driver on a single occasional international journey can postpone the weekly rest for up to 12 consecutive 24-hour periods after a previous regular weekly rest. The service must last at least 24 hours and include another country. At the end, the driver takes two weekly rests back to back, or one regular weekly rest and one reduced weekly rest of at least 24 hours, back to back. The vehicle needs a digital or smart tachograph. If they drive between 22:00 and 06:00, the vehicle is multi-manned or the driving stretch before a break is cut to three hours. If the journey ends early, those back-to-back rests start immediately. A new journey does not start until they are taken.

GB domestic rules for passenger vehicles are another set again. The domestic passenger rules (opens in a new tab) require a continuous rest of 10 hours between working days, which can be reduced to 8.5 hours up to three times a week, and at least one period of 24 hours off duty in any two consecutive weeks. Those are not the goods domestic figures.

Working time for passenger vehicles uses night as 01:00 to 05:00. The passenger working-time annex (opens in a new tab) says that if night work is done, working time must not exceed 10 hours in any 24 hours unless a collective or workforce agreement allows more. Goods night is a different window. The PSV licensing guide requires driver-card data at least every 28 days and vehicle-unit data at least every 90 days, drivers’ hours records for at least 12 months, and working-time records for at least 24 months. What an infringement looks like in the analysis is in tachograph infringements explained.

Daily checks

The bus and coach walkaround (opens in a new tab) is the daily check for a public service vehicle. It is done before the journey. Defects are reported in writing. It is not the goods walkaround. A passenger check includes the saloon: exits clear, steps, interior lights, and fittings such as a toilet where the vehicle has one. Where the vehicle is covered by the accessibility regulations, the driver checks the wheelchair space, the boarding device, priority seats, handrails, and colour contrast, and knows how those features work.

A first-aid kit is required on a bus with 16 or more passenger seats, except local services, and on a bus with 9 to 16 passenger seats first used from 1 April 1988. The walkaround page asks that it is present, in good condition, and easy to reach. Do not add trailer landing legs or a goods load-security line to this check.

Defects

The PSV licensing guide requires drivers to complete and return defect records and to record defects correctly. Reported defects are kept in writing or in a format that can be opened, repaired promptly, and a vehicle that is not roadworthy is taken out of service. A dangerous defect found during the journey is dealt with before the vehicle continues. The person who receives the report should be named before the shift, not discovered after the defect.

PSV maintenance and safety inspections

The Guide to maintaining roadworthiness (opens in a new tab) applies to passenger vehicles as well as goods vehicles. A safety inspection is the periodic inspection at the interval declared on the vehicle operator licensing service. Its scope is at least the items in the statutory annual test for that vehicle, using the methods in the PSV inspection manual. The passenger example sheet in that guide is Annex 4B. The goods example is a different sheet.

Inspections are planned at least six months ahead, with the annual test on the same planner. Vehicles have to be available for the inspection, the brake assessment, and the statutory test. Records of safety inspections are kept for at least 15 months, including vehicles no longer on the licence, and a traffic commissioner can ask for a copy. The declared interval is the operator’s, not a single week-count for every bus.

Brake testing

Every safety inspection includes a brake-performance assessment. The methods are those named in the roadworthiness guide. There is no pass percentage on this page. A bus is not assessed by copying a laden-lorry calendar onto it. HGV PMI inspections explains the shared assessment programme. The manual for the vehicle in front of you is the passenger inspection manual.

MOT and annual testing

The annual test for a bus or coach is the test described on MOT for lorries, buses and trailers (opens in a new tab). It is not a private-car MOT, and a pass does not replace the safety inspections you declared. The dates on the sheets are compared with the interval on the licence. Test history that forms part of the maintenance record follows the 15-month duty in the licensing guide. The PSV guide also expects you to monitor test results and act on the trend.

Accessibility

The accessibility guide (opens in a new tab) says the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations apply to new buses and coaches introduced since 31 December 2000, with a capacity of more than 22 passengers, used on a local or scheduled service. A minibus under that capacity is not brought into those regulations by this page. Do not tell every operator that every small vehicle needs a wheelchair lift.

Where a vehicle is in scope, the walkaround includes the accessibility features, and the driver has to know how they work. An accessibility certificate, once issued, lasts the life of the vehicle unless it is altered, and accessibility is then checked at the annual test. Local services also have to meet the accessibility rules in the local bus services guide (opens in a new tab).

Vehicle and driver records

The passenger file is not a trailer file. Keep the PSV licence and the discs, the driver entitlement and CPC, the hours download and the analysis for at least 12 months, working-time records for at least 24 months, and maintenance records for at least 15 months. Licence-check printouts are still not given their own month count in these guides. What records a transport manager should keep is the wider map. This page is the passenger set.

Compliance monitoring

A commissioner looks at whether the systems exist and whether anyone reads them. That includes the inspection dates against the interval you declared, the defect closed before the vehicle works again, the tachograph file actually analysed, and the driver still entitled to drive. A standard-licence holder also has to keep the nominated transport manager in place. If that person leaves, the licence no longer has the professional competence the guide requires until someone else is accepted. For a local service in England, the local bus services guide (opens in a new tab) requires Bus Open Data: timetable, fares, real-time location, and punctuality. The duty applies to a local service with a stopping place in England, including a service that runs mostly in Wales or Scotland. It is not a duty this page extends to every private hire.

Practical monthly PSV checklist

Tick the evidence for one month. The status is the status of the duty. There is no trailer row, because this list is for the passenger fleet.

FleetPro for PSV operators

FleetPro PSV is the same platform with the organisation type set to passenger. It is not a second price list. Until a separate PSV price list is published, the packages are the same Checks, Core, Compliance, and Complete approach used for goods. The public overview is on PSV compliance. Package differences are on pricing.

Walkaround photos, nil defects, signatures, and defect reports are on Checks and inside Core, Compliance, and Complete. Document storage and the year planner are on Compliance and Complete. Workshop is a separate package. Nothing here makes the software a validated earned-recognition supplier.

Questions operators ask

What is the difference between a standard and a restricted PSV licence?

A standard licence can authorise the vehicles on the licence for hire or reward in passenger transport, nationally or internationally as the type allows, and it needs a nominated transport manager. A restricted licence is limited to small vehicles and to the main-occupation rules, with no more than two vehicles, and it does not nominate a transport manager. The compliance work is still done.

Is the transport manager CPC the same as the driver CPC?

No. The transport manager certificate is professional competence in passenger transport operations. The driver CPC is the driver’s qualification, 35 hours every five years where driving is the main job. A goods transport-manager certificate is a third document and is not this nomination.

Do goods drivers’ hours rules apply to a coach?

No. Use the passenger guide. The goods article is the other regime. Occasional international coach work has its own weekly-rest postponement. Domestic passenger rest is 10 hours between days, not the goods domestic duty figure.

Does every minibus need wheelchair access?

No. The accessibility regulations cited here apply to buses and coaches that can carry more than 22 passengers, introduced since 31 December 2000, and used on a local or scheduled service. A smaller vehicle is outside that sentence.

Is FleetPro PSV a different package?

No. The organisation type is passenger. The packages are the same until a separate PSV price list is published. The licence field, the inspection sheet, the night window, and incident records change with that type. Trailers are not added to the PSV fleet. You can open a trial and see the passenger set. Start at organisation setup.

Official sources

The duties on this page are taken from these GOV.UK guides.

PSV operator licensing guide (opens in a new tab). Passenger drivers’ hours (opens in a new tab). Guide to maintaining roadworthiness (opens in a new tab). Bus and coach walkaround checks (opens in a new tab). Bus and coach accessibility (opens in a new tab).