Home Game: Driving a Minibus in the UK

Here’s a question: if a minibus is just like a car, why am I reading about driving one in the UK? Good question but the answer might surprise you. Yes, a minibus is like a car in that it has four wheels and the expected controls, lights and so forth. However, there are elements of using a minibus in the UK that differ from those applying to driving a car. This is especially important, as will become clear, when passengers are being carried, although the requirements are sensible enough to be met permanently.

The first piece of advice is a simple one: carry a fire extinguisher and a first aid kit. The reasons for doing his are obvious but the principle can be extended. A good torch, a warning triangle and a reflective waistcoat or jacket take up very little room and could be life-savers in certain circumstances; carry these items too.

Next on the list are practices concerning the use of a minibus’s onboard equipment. Switching on the sidelights when parking by the roadside after dark is a fairly obvious move, as is the use of the vehicle’s hazard warnings lights as and when necessary. However, there are less evident tips. For example, using the minibus’s hooter between 2300 and 0700 is frowned upon but don’t forget that doors and diesel engines are noisy too. When passengers are alighting in residential areas late at night, don’t keep the engine ticking over for minutes and take over the responsibility of opening and closing doors yourself. If in any doubt about why, imagine it is you who are nodding off to sleep behind those curtained bedroom windows!

Now for the dynamic aspect of minibus driving. Unless you’ve had access to Count Zobrowski’s original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (raced at Brooklands in 1921, with a 23-litre, 6-cylinder engine), you’ll find a minibus feels very big and heavy at first. All you need to remember is that a minibus doesn’t accelerate or stop as quickly as a car can, isn’t designed to take corners fast and takes up more road space.

Next, speed limits. These can best be understood by consulting the following list.

Urban and residential areas: 30mph
A-class (single carriageway) roads: 50mph
Dual carriageways: 60mph
Motorways: 70mph
Motorways while towing a trailer: 60mph; you cannot use the fast lane while towing

What some minibus drivers forget, particularly when passengers are carried, is the matter of responsibility. As the driver, you are responsible for the comfort and safety of your passengers, and there are some simple tips to help you with this.

Thinks of the situation in terms of ‘pre-flight checks’ before setting off -

Are your route and stops planned out?
Are the windows and windscreen clean?
Have you enough fuel on board?
Are the tyres and lights all fine?
Are all the passengers seated?
Are they wearing their seatbelts?
Are all the doors closed?

When actually on the road, you need to keep a weather eye on how you drive. This may seem self-evident but many drivers tend to think in terms of themselves only. Harsh acceleration and braking, overenthusiastic cornering and excessive speed can do more than merely make passengers uncomfortable; it might make them sick!

Driving a minibus is easy but requires a little forethought. Attend to the above and you’ll find it makes the going that much easier.

The Minibus Club is a specialist minibus insurance provider and has offered UK minibus insurance quotes since 1997. Visit our website for minibus driving advice and to receive an online quote for minibus insurance.

Cover Story: Which Minibus Insurance Should You Choose?

‘All men are equal but some are more equal than others.’ There’s a touch of cynicism in this 1913 quotation but here, it begs a question: is all minibus insurance equal. In practice, while minibus insurance must conform to particular rules, there are five types of minibus insurance. What follows explains the five types and highlights how each reflects a different kind of minibus usage.

Family

More and more people are appreciating the versatility of minibuses. After all, what type of vehicle could be better for transporting small groups of passengers in comfort and safety? Such use is especially relevant to those with an extended family.
Family minibus insurance is tailored to this kind of use but it has a significant proviso. The minibus concerned can be used for social, domestic and pleasure trips but using it for hire or reward is not permitted.

Charity

The versatile nature of the minibus is what tempts charitable organisations into using them. This temptation is strong, as is witnessed by the many minibuses on our roads in the hands of various charities.
Charity minibus insurance packages are aimed at non profit-making concerns and are designed to keep running costs to the minimum. Once again, a specific stipulation exists, in the shape of the requirement for a Section 19 or Section 22 Permit. This is to prove that the minibus insured is being used for non profit-making and charitable purposes.

MPV

For this article, a minibus and an MPV can be considered as identical. This is because an increasing number of commercial concerns have passenger-carrying MPVs. Part of these vehicles’ attraction for this use is that they can be easily modified to suit the Disability Discrimination Act.
As a consequence, organisations including nursing homes and educational establishments, as well as those that need to transport employees, are using MPVs. In answer to the obvious demand, minibus insurance brokers offer bespoke policies for MPVs used in this way.

Fleet

Spot more than one minibus in the same livery and the chances are you’re seeing part of a fleet of minibuses. Insurance companies, again with an eye to cost benefits, can cater for fleet usage of minibuses.
In this field, it’s common for minibus policies to cover more than one vehicle; some policies have no upper limit in terms of vehicle numbers. Similarly, parameters such as vehicle make and model are rarely fixed. These factors mean that a fleet of minibuses can be insured en masse, saving the costs and complicated paperwork involved in insuring vehicles individually.

Taxi

Minibuses can be seen operating as taxis and in doing so, they meet a demand. In being able to carry more passengers and additional luggage, minibus taxis are a desirable addition to any carrier’s fleet. Moreover, provisions for wheelchair-bound passengers are easy to arrange.
Taxis can be either public or private hire vehicles; the former can be hailed at any point, while the latter must be pre-booked. In either case, the same kind of insurance requirements apply. The main one is insurance for ‘The carriage of persons for hire or reward’. However, it is more-or-less universal for public liability insurance to be added to the policy that covers a minibus for use as a taxi. This should include an indemnity limit of at least 5 million pounds. Minibuses used in this way must also meet local government requirements.

The Minibus Club is a specialist minibus insurance provider and has offered UK minibus insurance quotes since 1997. Visit our website for minibus driving advice and to receive an online quote for minibus insurance.

After the Event: What to do Following a Minibus Accident

Accidents are a sad fact of life; they happen and there's an end to it. Is this true? Inasmuch as accidents do happen, it is but there are procedures the minibus driver can follow that can lessen the dangers after an accident and make the outcome far easier to handle. What are these procedures? Read on and learn.

The minibus driver's first responsibility here the safety of his passengers, and of anyone else involved. So, his or her first action should be to ensure that the minibus is in a safe location. Park the vehicle off the carriageway (if possible) and apply the handbrake. Then switch on the minibus's hazard lights; if a warning triangle is carried, it can be placed no less than 50 metres from the vehicle. This can be done later and a triangle shouldn't be used on a motorway, for the sake of the driver's own safety.

The passengers come next in the post-accident checklist. Regardless of the severity of the impact, the minibus driver should find out if anyone on board is injured. Passengers may be in varying states of distress but it's essential to establish that anyone who has been injured is made a comfortable, applying simple first aid if necessary. Obviously, anyone with apparently severe injuries should not be moved. Should the emergency services be required, make the relevant call(s) as quickly as possible. Give as much information as you can about the vehicle's location and the number and status of any injured passengers, and do not leave the scene before the services arrive.

Keeping calm is important, as is keeping everyone inside the minibus. Human nature dictates that panic spreads and that people will try to get away from what they see as a dangerous situation. In fact, it's far more dangerous to have panicked passengers exiting a vehicle on to a busy carriageway. So, assuming there is no evidence of further danger, such as fire, the minibus should remain fully occupied. Should there be any such danger, or should parking off the road be impossible, have the passengers assemble well away from the minibus, and from traffic.

The subsequent steps are all about legalities and insurance. As such, they aren't as engaging as the above but are at least equally as important. They consist of the following points:-

1. Take details of all vehicles involved, jotting down the make, model and registration number of each. Take the names, addresses and insurance details of all drivers concerned. You must, by law, give your name, address, contact number and insurer details to other parties involved.

2. Make a simple sketch of the accident, noting down details such as date, time, estimated speed, location and circumstances. Using a mobile phone's camera or a digital camera to record the scene could prove invaluable. Remember to ask any attending police officer for an incident number

3. After a minor incident, or one where nobody else is involved, you may continue after you've ensured that no-one is injured and that the minibus remains roadworthy.

4. After a serious accident, the minibus driver must report any injuries to the police.

5. Never admit liability, apologise or offer payment at the scene. Doing so may affect any claim against you.

6. Finally, take the name and contact details from any witnesses.

Being armed with the above advice means the minibus driver will be able to minimise the immediate dangers and deal with the outcome of an accident relatively easily. Conversely, not following this advice can lead to all manner of problems, especially where an insurance claim ensues.

The Minibus Club is a specialist minibus insurance provider and has offered UK minibus insurance quotes since 1997. Visit our website for minibus driving advice and to receive an online quote for minibus insurance.

Avoiding a Winter of Discontent: Off-Season Minibus Driving Tips

Driving a minibus in foul weather conditions is sometimes unavoidable. This is especially so should winter weather close in unexpectedly mid-journey. Given that, in all but the most extreme conditions, a minibus will cope and deliver its passengers in perfect safety, a few winter driving tips are appropriate. Applying them, together with a little common sense, will see even unseasoned travellers reaching their destination.

The first aspects of winter driving concern the minibus itself. In addition to the usual checks, it makes sense to ensure that the vehicle has suitable, non-freezing fluid in its screen wash bottle. Acquire a scraper, and some cloths, or a chamois leather, to deal with snowbound or iced up windows. Carry a can of de-icer (just in case) and keep a good torch and a reflective waistcoat or jacket, in the cab.

In essence, the problems of winter driving share two common denominators, visibility and grip. More accurately, it is the relative lack of these that causes problems and we can deal with each in turn.

Loss of visibility in winter can be due to several conditions. Rain-streaked glass means that you won't be able to see as well out of a minibus at any time of year. Add a measure of road grime, snow or ice and the problem is made more serious. While using windscreen washers and wipers is obvious, it's wise to clear any such debris off the glass before even considering driving. The same goes for the inside of the windows. Cold, wet conditions spell condensation especially with a full passenger count. While it may be tempting to let the minibus's demister and heated rear screen do the job, it's better to clear all glass before setting off. The same goes for the external lights' lenses – grime accumulates quickly and makes a significant difference to the light output.

While on the road, it is crucial to drive within the limits of vision. This works on a simple basis: if you can't see it, you won't be able to avoid it. So tailor your speed to suit the conditions, especially in fog. Also remember that fog droplets build up on a windscreen so leave your wipers to run on their intermittent setting, or use flick-wipe periodically. The natural tendency to drive too closely in fog can be overcome with that old standby, the two-second rule. It's better to apply a three or four-second rule, depending on your speed but remember that the vehicle you're following is punching a hole through the fog for you. Don't get too close.

A similar rule applies as regards lack of grip. Modern tyres are excellent but, without studs or chains, a tyre loses varying amounts of grip on snow or ice. As above, the solution is to drive within the limits of the available grip. Remember that black ice can lurk in areas yet to receive winter sunlight. Black ice at night can be still more dangerous. A road surface sparkling in the headlights is a good clue and it's significant that tyres on ice make no sound. If the wet road swishing or tyre rumble fades away, lift off the accelerator and slow down.

Above all, drive with finesse; clumsy control inputs cause skids. Drive within the lower limits imposed by the conditions and you'll arrive safely. Ignore the above advice and you may not arrive at all.

The Minibus Club is a specialist minibus insurance provider and has offered UK minibus insurance quotes since 1997. Visit our website for minibus driving advice and to receive an online quote for minibus insurance.