The Long & the Short of it

Here's a further confusion surrounding the use of motor cars that carry passengers for hire or reward.

There’s a boom in stretched limousines operating in Britain. There are said to be some 6,000 of them and rather than carry celebrities, these monster-sized cars are now in common use for hen nights, school proms and office parties.

Customers feel that limos are clearly an important part of passenger transport in the UK, yet they are also the Billy No Mates of the industry.

PSV operators don’t like them.

Anything operating with more than eight passenger seats and for hire or reward places the vehicle within the confines of the PSV Act 1981. Limos with nine passenger seats operate illegally. Stretched limos can have up to 16 passenger seats and can even have as many as 28 - putting them firmly in the small "bus" rather than "minibus" category.

The PSV Act 1981 predated the import and extensive commercial use of stretched limos and those drafting the legislation took no notice of them. VOSA tends not to recognise limos as "buses", as they fail to meet most of the PSV industry’s safety standards.

Taxi businesses don’t like them.

Most stretched limos have eight seats but few are licensed as private hire vehicles by their respective local authorities. In some parts of Britain, such limos have added insult to injury by blatantly parking on taxi ranks.

If a limo has more than eight passenger seats, it cannot be licensed as a private hire car (taxi) but won’t be licensed as a bus.

So, whether these are large "cars" or small buses, they operate in an unregulated environment. Who keeps an eye on standards? Who checks the vehicles’ conversions? Who tests roadworthiness and how regularly?

The senior traffic commissioner is calling for their urgent regulation. Even the National Limousine Association wants it, to protect genuine operators. Such a move must be in everyone’s interest.