Early start tomorrow and off up the dale to Hawes where I'm to learn about driving a 16-seat Mercedes minibus as a volunteer. I took my PSV test in '76 (my licence expired in '79) and had a fine old time mainly in a Plaxton-bodied 56-seater with a Seddon-Atkinson turbo-diesel motor taking women to their early shifts in Leeds before my 'proper' job and running noisy darts teams around Yorkshire at night. ISTR the darts teams were very kind by way of having a collection for me.
Before anyone asks, I will not be taking anyone's paid job off them; rather I expect to lose a shift or two to the paid drivers if they need the hours. We'll see how it works out. If I get through the course OK. I'm guessing I'll handle the driving adequately but I'm not so sure about the tickets and money side, mental arithmetic never having been my strong suit.
Any minibus drivers among the forumeers ?
Anyone care to wish me luck ?
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Absolutely good luck to you.
And arithmetic is only very difficult if you try to do it quickly, and there are few prizes for speed.
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Good luck, maybe brush up on the theory, things may have changed since you last looked.
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Good luck Hawkeye.... I used that service early last month. My walking group spent two nights in Hawes, just up the road from where I live. Left our cars at the B & B Friday PM and Saturday AM the minibus ran us down to Horton in Ribb so we had a half decent walk back up the P Way. Sunday we walked to Keld where the minibus collected us and drove us back to Hawes.
An excellent community service for people in Wensleydale, providing lifts for locals to the nearest mainline station, shopping trips, but mostly used by walking groups like us during the summer months.
Although we walk 12 months a year....just need to get a wiggle on with reduced daylight hours.
Interesting read yesterday in a local rag about a farming family at Newby Head who keep the Ingleton-Hawes road open. Dent Head can be pretty bleak !
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>> And arithmetic is only very difficult if you try to do it quickly.....
...can be a bit difficult in the local 'dialect'......
...Yan, Tan, Tether, Mether, Pip.......etc.
;-)
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Hawkeye...I read it online in t’ Yorkshire Post yestrday. Father & son team ( Rodney Beresford) who plough that road twixt Hawes and Ingleton.
Thought it may be of interest
Wasn’t cashless for us.... got a price from Hawes TIC through which we arranged the collection & pick up times. Paid driver. And left a handsome tip at the end of both journeys.
Last edited by: legacylad on Tue 12 Dec 17 at 19:39
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>> guessing I'll handle the driving adequately but I'm not so sure about the tickets and
>> money side, mental arithmetic never having been my strong suit.
Thats useful in this cashless bus age....
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>> Thats useful in this cashless bus age....
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....Yorkshire has been voluntarily cashless for centuries.....
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I've been spending me brass lately tha knows....short arms n deep pockets be blowed
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>> I've been spending me brass lately tha knows....short arms n deep pockets be blowed
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...You'll be on the cusp of being drummed out.....
Now repeat after me:
See all, 'ear all, say nowt,
Eat all, sup all, pay nowt,
And, if ever tha does owt for nowt, allus do it for thissen.
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Good luck Hawkeye. Im sure after a 56 seater it will be a doddle. I have a D1 (as I presume most of us have under Grandad / Grandma rights). Occasionally drive our works 16 seat Transit minibus. Drives like a car. Just have to go wide on some junctions to keep the back wheels off the kerb.
Ironically a few years, when my kids where at junior school, they were doing a few days adventure training up at Kepplewray in the Lakes. Bus hire was phenomenal for a small school. I volunteered to drive a minibus as a much cheaper option and make a few days of it with Mrs FC.
I had to do a Local Authority assessment drive. It was amusing really as I was at the top end of the scale for Driving Authorities in my job at the time including riot vans. Which came in handy with a bus load of kids.
It didn't last long. The assessment drive that is :)
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>> Just have to go wide on some junctions to keep the back wheels off the kerb.
Knowing that is where you are using your intelligence. Surprising how many think you can drive a car forwards into a space to park (parallel parking) when reversing was easy... Not that car behind work that one out all the time.
Longer vehicles need a larger 'turning circle' to get into spaces front in. I was at the gym last week and security/parking chap waves to tell me where there was a space. End of a row with an embankment next to it... no way to turn into it forward with the other row of cars there. (opposite/behind space).
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Did an NHS MIDAS test a few years ago. Doddle. Driving a slightly smaller Motorhome was pretty easy. Worse bit for me was remembering the height of the thing when going under barriers.Dymo taped a label on the the (redundant) interior mirror !
Did another NHS assessment a few weeks ago for the courier job. Nice trundle around the north East Wales roads.
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>> See all, 'ear all, say nowt,
>> Eat all, sup all, pay nowt,
>> And, if ever tha does owt for nowt, allus do it for thissen.
That brings back some memories. It was a jingle on Radio Leeds breakfast show in seventies, sometimes presented by Peter Byrne who's son was a school friend of mine.
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Thank you all for your good wishes. Three of us on the course and 2 instructors. We ran through some theory in the morning while the rain teemed down outside. I was surprised at the lack of basic Highway Code knowledge of other trainees. We were short of driving time as the buses were needed to cover broken-down FIATs.
I got to go first in the rain in a Transit with an instructor and a course member as a passenger. We negotiated some tractors and other traffic in Hawes, then headed into the countryside, doubling back next to the river. I was criticised for not using the left mirror on left-hand bends and for going too fast. Hardly justified IMO; the instructor just didn't see me look because he was chatting to our solitary passenger.
We arrived at our first flood where a proportion of the River Ure was escaping across Bellow Hill. I could see the verges and exposed road ahead so we cruised through. Then we came to the second flood. This was different; the water was halfway up the drystone wall, the verges had disappeared and I could only see swirling water as far as the next bend. The time had come to turn the bus around. The instructor offered to take over but I declined and asked him to do some guiding. Then a local appeared in a Kia Sportage and parked ahead of the bus. Did I know how deep the water was? Did I think she should try and drive through? I said that I didn't know and that I was going to turn round. When the Kia had gone I executed a multi-point turn without hitting anything and we swapped drivers.
We all passed the course. Our instructors said that no-one had ever failed which was a bit of a let-down. My route From Richmond should bag me an automatic Mercedes which I'm looking forward to driving.
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I repeated my Midas Certificate recently for the third time.
I also had to go for a DVLA medical for the second time to keep the D1 entitlement on my driving licence.
Since you drove a big bus in the past the 16 seater will be a doddle, but if you do the Accessible Module of Midas you will have to do the practical instruction for using the tail lift and securing wheelchairs and passengers.
My course was 5 hours theory, followed by a multi-choice test, then a few weeks later 4 hours practical driving and wheelchair instruction.
I did the driving with another volunteer who was new.
Our instructor Hannah kept telling him to go slowly round corners and when approaching junctions or other stop situations.
He managed it at the first turn, then reverted.
Most of our passengers are elderly and frail, so I try to give them a smooth ride.
We are never in a hurry.
The Merc we did our test on was an Auto-very smooth and nice to drive, but you could not see the back wheels which I like to do, as it makes reversing round corners easier.
Your 16 seater will have a big rear overhang-it's a pain when navigating the sort of narrow spaces you may be going into-tighter than you would have been doing in a big bus I suspect in the roads around Hawes.
On your pre-drive vehicle checks-look out for whacks on the corners done by other drivers, and note them before you go off-don't get blamed for them!
We don't take fares, the charity I drive for has registered some of our trips as bus routes, so the oldies go free if they have a bus pass, even though we pick them up at their door, and go round any way we please-mainly so they don't have to cross a road to get on the bus.
You will find it great fun, and rewarding in a non-financial sense,as all the passengers are so grateful you give them independence, and the ability to stay in their own homes, and you will get to know them.
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Had to do a driving assessment for my current job with the NHS. Nice 17 plate Transit. The assessor was a well known guy in the biking world, ex Traffic cop. Had a decent assessment. Only "issue" he pointed out that I sounded the horn at a pedestrian that could have crossed in front of me and that I "flashed" at someone to pull out.
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interesting post; thank you Stroudie.
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MIDAS couse for bus driving - what could go wrong? - No FM2R
