Had a run in with a nice employee of Arriva this morning who called me
a ****ing moron because I didn't know that PSV drivers aren't allowed
to reverse. Now I am not an expert on the law regarding PSV drivers so
can somebody confirm that it is a fact that they are not allowed to
reverse. Seems bonkers to me.
Whether thay can or can't reverse I take it that they can't call
members of the public ****ing morons or threaten to punch them in the
face.

Kevin

"Kev" wrote in message
oups.com...
Had a run in with a nice employee of Arriva this morning who called me
a ****ing moron because I didn't know that PSV drivers aren't allowed
to reverse. Now I am not an expert on the law regarding PSV drivers so
can somebody confirm that it is a fact that they are not allowed to
reverse. Seems bonkers to me.
Whether thay can or can't reverse I take it that they can't call
members of the public ****ing morons or threaten to punch them in the
face.

Kevin


We are not allowed to reverse a vehicle which is carrying passengers.

In article .com,
(Kev) wrote:

Had a run in with a nice employee of Arriva this morning who called me
a ****ing moron because I didn't know that PSV drivers aren't allowed
to reverse.

Funny, they do so every single day at the local bus station, and at
various points on various rural routes round Hampshire/Wiltshire.

It's also a requirement of the test.

--
Paul Cummins - Always a NetHead
Wasting Bandwidth since 1981

In article ,
(Fray Bentos) wrote:

We are not allowed to reverse a vehicle which is carrying passengers.

And this is enshrined in law where???

--
Paul Cummins - Always a NetHead
Wasting Bandwidth since 1981

"Kev" writes:

Had a run in with a nice employee of Arriva this morning who called me
a ****ing moron because I didn't know that PSV drivers aren't allowed
to reverse. Now I am not an expert on the law regarding PSV drivers so
can somebody confirm that it is a fact that they are not allowed to
reverse. Seems bonkers to me.

That cannot, in general, be true as it is very common for buses and
coaches to reverse out of the stands at bus stations. I have also been
on buses which have reversed on 'normal' roads.

Kev wrote:
Had a run in with a nice employee of Arriva this morning who called
me a ****ing moron because I didn't know that PSV drivers aren't
allowed to reverse. Now I am not an expert on the law regarding PSV
drivers so can somebody confirm that it is a fact that they are not
allowed to reverse. Seems bonkers to me.
Whether thay can or can't reverse I take it that they can't call
members of the public ****ing morons or threaten to punch them in
the face.

Please send a complaint about this driver to
giving full details of route, time and
place, and any of the numbers on the bus that you managed to note. I
did so last month following a similar incident with an Arriva driver
(route 337). Within a few days, I had a letter from Arriva: "the driver
has been identified ... appropriate disciplinary action will be taken
...."

--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

"Graham Murray" wrote in message
...
"Kev" writes:

Had a run in with a nice employee of Arriva this morning who called me
a ****ing moron because I didn't know that PSV drivers aren't allowed
to reverse. Now I am not an expert on the law regarding PSV drivers so
can somebody confirm that it is a fact that they are not allowed to
reverse. Seems bonkers to me.

That cannot, in general, be true as it is very common for buses and
coaches to reverse out of the stands at bus stations. I have also been
on buses which have reversed on 'normal' roads.

Arent they allowed to as long as there is someone guiding them out of
the stand - when they used to have conducters etc?


Teleman

"Paul Cummins" wrote in message
.. .
In article ,
(Fray Bentos) wrote:

We are not allowed to reverse a vehicle which is carrying passengers.

And this is enshrined in law where???

This old chestnut surfaces regularly. It may have been true forty years ago,
when most buses had conductors, whose job included watching the bus go back
as it reversed and when double deck buses had to have the top deck shut off
during the off peak, if they were then one-man operated. However things have
moved on a little since then, although many drivers (some of whom would not
have been born then) like to maintain otherwise.



There is no longer a need for a man with a red flag to walk in front of the
vehicle. I believe that pneumatic tyres have replaced solid tyres. The
engine has been moved to the back of the bus, power steering fitted, air
brakes have been supplied, reversing horns and, in some cases, CCTV to
monitor what is happening behind the bus. Apparently most buses these days
employ one person, who not only drives, but also collects fares AND
(incredible as it may seem) operates the door.



It comes down to safety and context. If a bus (loaded with passengers or
empty) were to reverse unsupervised from a side entrance on to a busy main
road during the rush hour, I would suggest that this would pose some major
safety issues and the driver could be prosecuted for dangerous driving.
However as already pointed out in other threads buses reverse with
passengers in bus stations all over the country every day of the week. In
these situations pedestrians (particularly in these HSE conscious days) are
kept in defined non bus operating areas.



The registration form that is supplied to the Traffic Commissioner used to
have (and possibly still does has) a section that specifically asks for any
reversing points on the route to be listed. I have both travelled on buses
as a passenger and driven a bus that is scheduled to make such moves, in
passenger service, amazingly enough without any supervision, or problem.



I would suggest that the presence or otherwise of passengers on the bus is a
complete red herring. If an unsupervised reversing move is dangerous, then
it is dangerous, regardless of whether or not passengers are on board. In
fact in such circumstances you are probably better with a (trusted)
passenger on board as s/he can watch you back, from inside or outside the
vehicle.



For comparison, I watched an articulated lorry (almost) get itself wedged
down a Cornish country lane yesterday. Despite the fact that the lane
started off narrow, with overhanging trees, and could only get narrower, the
driver decided that he would plough on regardless (almost literally), at one
point being even unable to get out of the cab due to the high banks on each
side of the road. Eventually he decided that he couldn't get any further
forward, so then decided that he would have to back up half a mile round a
bend, despite the fact that he must have been virtually unable to see
anything in his mirrors. I would venture to suggest that this WAS a
dangerous manoeuvre.

"Fray Bentos" wrote in message
...

"Kev" wrote in message
oups.com...
Had a run in with a nice employee of Arriva this morning who called me
a ****ing moron because I didn't know that PSV drivers aren't allowed
to reverse. Now I am not an expert on the law regarding PSV drivers so
can somebody confirm that it is a fact that they are not allowed to
reverse. Seems bonkers to me.
Whether thay can or can't reverse I take it that they can't call
members of the public ****ing morons or threaten to punch them in the
face.

Kevin


We are not allowed to reverse a vehicle which is carrying passengers.



Oops.

Should have typed this :

If a bus has passengers on, we can only reverse it when guided by a police
officer or a member of the company.

"Fray Bentos" wrote in message
. uk...

"Fray Bentos" wrote in message
...

"Kev" wrote in message
oups.com...
Had a run in with a nice employee of Arriva this morning who called me
a ****ing moron because I didn't know that PSV drivers aren't allowed
to reverse. Now I am not an expert on the law regarding PSV drivers so
can somebody confirm that it is a fact that they are not allowed to
reverse. Seems bonkers to me.
Whether thay can or can't reverse I take it that they can't call
members of the public ****ing morons or threaten to punch them in the
face.

Kevin


We are not allowed to reverse a vehicle which is carrying passengers.



Oops.

Should have typed this :

If a bus has passengers on, we can only reverse it when guided by a police
officer or a member of the company.

Which is still untrue - see my previous post. It may be that your company
believes that it is not a good operating practice and is concerned that it
may open them up to litigation if anything goes wrong, but as I have said
already there is nothing in law that says reversing with passengers is
illegal per se.