New four-year medium-term exemptions (MTEs) from PSVAR will be introduced for in-scope closed-door home-to-school transport from 1 August, Minister for Roads and Buses Simon Lightwood has advised trade bodies representing the coach industry.
They will follow the current round of MTEs for those services and rail replacement duties, all of which expire on 31 July. The future home-to-school exemptions will be offered subject to specific conditions that will be laid out when eligible operators apply.
At the same time, the minister has confirmed that rail replacement services will see no more exemptions from PSVAR and must comply from 1 August. He has thanked coach, bus and rail operators for increasing the level of compliance on rail replacement, “enabling me to end the granting of exemptions for these services when MTEs expire on 31 July.”
To continue in the home-to-school field from 1 August will be a requirement that operators holding MTEs maintain a minimum proportion of compliant coaches in their fleet, aligned with existing MTE stipulations, to ensure that there are sufficient compliant coaches in the market.
A key element of the future MTEs regime will require operators holding them to provide compliant coaches for home-to-school duties on request without charging a premium.
Details of how to apply for exemptions from 1 August are awaited, but one source close to the matter has suggested that movement will come soon given the less than eight-week window until expiry of existing MTEs and the likely volume of applications.
The Confederation notes that via the current medium-term exemptions, the proportion of compliant coaches has reached around 25% of vehicles used to transport children.
RHA Managing Director Richard Smith notes how the position outlined by Mr Lightwood “shows [how] ministers increasingly recognise that making coach travel fully accessible is a complex challenge that needs to focus on more than the vehicle.”
https://www.route-one.net/news/new-four-year-mtes-from-psvar-for-closed-door-home-to-school/