None DDA Buses still in Service?

[mbonwick]

RE: None DDA Buses still in Service?
We need to be careful with terminology here.
A "coach" is a term only defined within the PSVAR Act, as "a vehicle on which standees are not permitted". It does not appear in the Public Service Vehicles (Conditions of Fitness, Equipment, Use and Certification) Regulations.
What I'm trying to say here is that "coach" is an extra category only brought in for DDA - no vehicles are registered as type: coach; it's either a PSV or HGV.

Now, to get a PSV to be a coach for the purpose of PSVAR it's really simple - you send form VTP5 "Notification of Alterations to a PSV" off to the DVSA with a new standing capacity of 0. They then send an examiner to check the vehicle over and give it a new MOT. (Or if you have a Merc 709D, you take out a pair of seats, then send VTP5 off with the new seated capacity of 21).

The only possible stumbling block is that DVSA have said they won't allow the changing of capacity just to subvert the DDA/PSVAR regulations - so presumably the operator will need a cover story. (e.g. use on school contracts where the contract specifies "no standee" vehicles; conversion to 3+2 seating etc).

Also worth saying that for the purposes of DDA, any vehicle can be a coach - regardless of whether it'd normally be called a mini or midibus, or a single decker or a double decker - if you can't stand, it's a coach.