Mini-bus
company boss Martin Allen appears to have won the first round in a battle
against a legal loophole which he claims is destroying his business and many
others.
His persistence to get
justice means many thousands of school buses – and buses funded by local
authorities - across the country could be driven by drivers who do not meet the
necessary legal standards.
The Department for
Transport has now issued a warning to ‘community transport operators’ across
the UK that their drivers may be operating illegally. This has led to the
Community Transport Association calling for an emergency meeting with the
Government to deal with the threat to its members.
At the heart of this
dispute is bus driver Martin Allen who has run his company J A Travel Ltd for
18 years operating in the Mansfield and Nottingham areas. At its height the
company employed 18 drivers and was tendering for contracts for local
authorities and others on a regular basis.
However since 2010, the
fortunes of J A Travel Ltd and many similar companies has fallen dramatically.
Martin believes the use of section 19 permits by community transport operators
has been integral to this.
Section 19 was originally
introduced to allow volunteer drivers – for example from churches or charitable
groups – to drive mini-buses without being trained to the standard of a
professional paid driver. Many organisations went
on to use this permit to run multi-million pound transport companies – under a
not-for-profit banner.
Martin Allen believes this
is unfair and today it’s believed there are 3,500 of these ‘not-for-profit’
companies operating across the UK.
Martin felt strongly this
was not only unfair on commercial operators but was outside of the spirit of
the law. He took the matter to the European Commission. The UK Government was
asked to respond on the matter and that process is still ongoing.
Martin said: “I’ve
dedicated several years of my time and thousands of pounds to right this wrong.
My business and many others have been decimated by a legal loophole which
allows Community Transport Operators to bid for contracts, often involving
public money – while not having to meet the much higher safety requirements of
commercial drivers.
“This means my company can
never compete on a level playing field as these companies don’t have the same
overheads and training costs to bear. More importantly it’s a safety issue.
Some of these CTOs are transporting the most vulnerable in our society – and
they are not as highly trained as my drivers or the drivers of any other
commercial entity.”
Martin took his case to the
European Commission claiming the UK Government was breaking the law by allowing
this practice to continue. The UK Government has now issued a letter to CTOs
warning them they could be using drivers with the wrong licences.
Martin said: “This could
have huge implications for many people. Much school transport is run in this
way and overnight schools could find their drivers are declared illegal.
Insurance could also be affected. It will be very bad news for the Community
Transport Operators.
“My hope is that this will
help my sector start to recover as we will then be able to bid for contracts on
a level playing field with any other provider of transport services for the
public.”