(30 Dec 2019, 4:10 pm)tyresmoke wrote That's exactly the issue facing many operators in the Tees Valley, in that many school services are paid for by parents either directly to the operator or through the school. It was presumed by many operators that any school service, as Dan says, wasn't registered didn't therefore have to comply to PSVAR. There's been a clause for a while that any service carrying a group of passengers to one point (eg a school/college), organised and advertised by another entity (eg a school/college) and paying one flat fare (eg most school/college services) don't have to be registered and that's what a lot of services run under.
It's only recently (in last few months) come to light that all of these services will have to comply which hasn't left much time to bring in vehicles required. There has already been a few school services dropped that will leave kids stranded, such as Carmel College (through Darlington Council, operated by Enterprise Travel) and Nunthorpe School (Compass Royston). Expect you'll see more and more kids being stranded if this is enforced as tenders get thrown in by coach operators. For those who do invest in compliant vehicles you may see those dipping into service work with potential competition for established operators...

To me, it shouldn't be about whether a service is registered or not, if they carry passengers, they should have to comply. End of.

I personally think the issue still lies with the local authority, sure everyone might have presumed that they wouldn't have to comply, but I would have thought that the local authority would have had their own requirements to make sure that the vehicles they run comply rather than going purely on the lowest price.