The Public Service Vehicles (Conditions of Fitness, Equipment, Use and Certification) Regulations 1981

PART IVREGULATIONS RELATING TO THE USE OF PUBLIC SERVICE VEHICLES

Obstruction of entrances, exists and gangways

37.  No person shall, while passengers are being carried by a vehicle, cause or permit any unnecessary obstruction to any entrance or exit or gangway of the vehicle.

Obstruction of driver

38.  No person shall cause or permit any unnecessary obstruction of the driver of a vehicle.

Body maintenance

39.  No person shall use a vehicle while it is carrying passengers or cause or permit it to be so used unless the inside and the outside of the body of the vehicle and all windows and fittings and all passengers' seats are maintained in clean and good condition.

Lamps

40.—(1) No person shall use a vehicle during the hours of darkness while it is carrying passengers or cause or permit it to be so used unless every lamp provided in compliance with Regulation 16 for the internal illumination of the vehicle is at all times during such use kept lighted to such extent as is necessary to provide adequate illumination of every access from any seat in the vehicle to every exit in the vehicle and of every such marking as is required by Regulation 24 to be provided in relation to every emergency exit in the vehicle:

Provided that it shall not be necessary to keep lighted any lamp provided on the upper deck of a double-decked vehicle if a barrier is secured across the bottom of all staircases leading to that deck so as effectively to prevent passengers using any such staircase.

(2) In this Regulation, “hours of darkness” means the time between half-an-hour after sunset and half-an-hour before sunrise.

Use of device for operating power-operated doors

41.—(1) Except as provided by paragraph (2), no person shall use or cause or permit to be used any device for operating the doors of a vehicle having power-operated doors, being a device such as is mentioned in condition (b) of Regulation 23(1) or, as the case may be, in paragraph 9(b)(ii) of Schedule 2.

(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply—

(a)in an emergency, as to the use of a device by any person;

(b)otherwise than in an emergency, as to the use of a device by a person in accordance with an authorisation by the operator of the vehicle, save that no such use shall occur if—

(i)the vehicle is in motion, and

(ii)the doors, when fully opened, project more than 80 millimetres from the side of the vehicle.

Filling of petrol tank

42.  While the engine of a vehicle is running no person shall cause or permit the filler cap fitted to the petrol tank of the vehicle to be removed or petrol to be put into its petrol tank.

Carriage of conductor

43.  No person shall use or cause or permit to be used as a stage carriage any vehicle which has a seating capacity exceeding 20 passengers unless a person authorised to act as conductor of the vehicle is carried thereby:

Provided that this Regulation shall not apply—

(i)in the case of a single-decked vehicle which has a seating capacity not exceeding 32 passengers and which is provided with only one emergency exit, if that exit and the entrance to the vehicle are both placed at the front of the vehicle and are readily visible to the driver from his seat and means are provided for the driver to be aware if any person outside the vehicle has been trapped by the closure of any door provided at that entrance, or

(ii)in the case of any other vehicle, if a certifying officer has stated in writing that the construction and design of the vehicle is such that a conductor is not required for the purpose of the safety of the passengers.

Carriage of inflammable or dangerous substances

44.—(1) No person shall use or cause or permit to be used any vehicle by which any highly inflammable or otherwise dangerous substance is carried unless that substance is carried in containers so designed and constructed, or unless the substance is so packed, that, notwithstanding an accident to the vehicle, it is unlikely that damage to the vehicle or injury to passengers carried by the vehicle will be caused by reason of the presence on it of that substance.

(2) The requirements of this Regulation are in addition to and not in derogation of the requirements of regulations made under the Petroleum (Consolidation) Act 1928 or under any other Act.

Markings

45.  No vehicle in respect of which, by virtue of section 17(1) of the Transport Act 1980, a certificate of initial fitness, or a certificate under section 130 of the Road Traffic Act 1960, or a certificate under section 47 of the Road Traffic Act 1972 is required shall be used on a road unless the vehicle is marked with clearly legible characters—

(i)not less than 25 millimetres tall,

(ii)in a conspicuous position on the nearside of the vehicle,

(iii)in colours which contrast with their background, and

(iv)indicating the name of the owner (as defined in section 44(1) of the said Act of 1980 in relation to a vehicle to which that definition applies) of the vehicle and the owner's principal place of business.