Further to the news item in last month’s routeone where the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) has issued an “extraordinary” call to the government asking it to embark on steps towards mandatory compliance with PSVAR for all coaches that are used on “for hire” work.
DPTAC says that formal intervention is “now essential” to drive an increase in the number of coaches that can accommodate wheelchair users and other less-mobile travellers. The article also states that “DPTAC believes that the government should, in due course, remove the exemption from PSVAR of the whole of the ‘for hire’ sector,” and that the Committee writes: “This alone will ensure that disabled people are no longer excluded from this important transport provision.”
Firstly, it would help if DPTAC could provide some sort of statistical support for its proposals. How many disabled travellers would convert to coach travel, or take it up for the first time, if PSVAR was available to the level it is proposing?
DPTAC’s request is indeed extraordinary, both in terms of timing and in terms of cost and benefit. The cost to the industry, if required to achieve this without government support, was going to be massive before this crisis, compared to the number of people it would benefit. The request now, after what we’ve gone through and still have to go through, makes DPTAC look, in my opinion, rather out of touch with reality, due to the obvious financial challenges that we are all now facing.
The reality, especially with regard to home-to-school transport is that: Firstly, the requirement for all vehicles to provide PSVAR compliance across the board – regardless of whether it has actually been requested by a family – is, in principle, a sledgehammer to crack a nut. And this is without going into discussions about the roadside and school coach park challenges of deploying a wheelchair lift, or indeed asking parents and disabled children the question of whether they prefer the specific door–to–door service that is currently provided, by specially trained minibus and taxi drivers, or the much less flexible or ideal provision that could be offered by a coach.
As responsible coach operators, we are happy to provide PSVAR where it is shown to be needed, and this in my view includes rail replacement. But requiring all operators to provide it, on all school services, regardless of actual demand, or consideration of the practical realities of provision is ludicrous.
Some common sense and reality checks needs to be applied here by DPTAC and by government. The post-COVID-19 world will be a very different one and our industry will not properly recover from this pandemic until 2023 or beyond.
Therefore, we will not be able to just carry on where we left off. The Confederation of Passenger Transport has proposed a practical and deliverable alternative solution that would provide a win-win situation for all. I hope decision makers will listen to it.
John Johnson
Johnsons Coach and Bus Travel
Henley-in-Arden
