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The EC Directive on Package Travel
Sat 10th Oct, 2009

The Council Directive 90/314/EEC on package travel, package holidays and package tours is designed to protect consumers who contract package travel in the EU. It covers the sale of a pre-arranged combination:
• transport, and or
• accommodation, and or
• other tourist services not ancillary to transport or accommodation and accounting for a significant proportion of the package.
Consumers will only be covered where, at least, two of these elements are sold or offered for sale at an inclusive price and the service covers a period of more than twenty-four hours or includes over-night accommodation.
The Directive contains rules concerning the liability of package organisers and retailers, who must accept responsibility for the performance of the services offered. There are some exceptions, for example cases of "force majeure", or similar circumstances which could neither be foreseen nor overcome. However, even in these cases the organiser must use his best endeavors to help consumers. The amount of compensation payable may be subject to certain limits but not to an unreasonable degree. Limits may indeed apply under international conventions.
The Directive also prescribes rules on the information that must be given to consumers. It contains specific requirements with regard to the content of brochures, where these are issued. For example, any brochure made available to consumers must indicate clearly and accurately the price, destination, itinerary and the means of transport used, type of accommodation, meal plan, passport and visa requirements, health formalities, timetable for payment and the deadline for informing consumers in the event of cancellation.
Consumers are entitled to cancel the contract if the organiser seeks to change the essential elements of the arrangements agreed.
The Directive also contains provisions on the security to be provided by operators and covering repayment of the price and repatriation of consumers in the event of the operator's insolvency.
Council Directive of 13 June 1990 on package travel, package holidays and package tours (90/314/EEC)

New Seatbelt Laws In France
Mon 28th Mar, 2005

New legislation was passed in France on 9th July 2003 concerning the wearing of seat belts on coaches travelling within France.

Decree 2003-637 requires that a coach driver is obliged to wear his or her seat belt at all times whilst driving in France. Any driver caught not wearing a seat belt is subject to €135 fine and penalty points on their licence. This penalty is reduced to €90 if paid within 3 days.

Individual coach passengers, including children, are also required to use seat belts and can also be fined €135 for non-compliance when seats have belts fitted and they are not being worn. In the case of school parties it is the teacher who would be fined.

The new legislation applies both to French coaches and those from other countries. Coach drivers and party leaders are required to remind passengers of their legal obligation to use seat belts where fitted.

Financial Security Provided By JAG Travel
Tue 29th Jun, 2010

Article 7 of the European Community Package Travel Directive was published on 13th June 1990 with the aim of providing better consumer protection to holiday makers. The provisions were embodied into UK law as the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations on 23rd December 1992 and became enforceable on 01 April 1993.

Requirement 5 of Article 7 states that the organiser must show evidence of security for the protection of pre-payments and for the repatriation of consumers in the event of insolvency. The Regulations provide for three approved methods of providing evidence of security for the refund of money paid over in the event of insolvency;

1. Bonding (Including ABTA and the CPT's Bonded Coach Holiday Scheme).
2. Consumer Protection Insurance.
3. A Trust Account.

We have chosen a Trust Account, administered by an Independent Trustee, as the best method of protecting our client's funds. All payments from clients are be held in a Trust Account. Funds held in this account are only released to JAG Travel once the Independent Trustee is satisfied that the tour has been completed. In the unlikely event of insolvency no claim can be made on any funds held in the Independent Trust Account by creditors. The money in the account belongs to the client until after the tour is completed. The Trust Account enables us to give a "cast iron" guarantee that the client will be completely reimbursed if JAG Travel were to cease trading.

Regulations - Coach Drivers Hours
Tue 29th Jun, 2010

COACH DRIVING HOURS RULES
There are strict rules which govern the work and rest periods of coach drivers. These apply across the whole of Europe. They have been made to ensure the safety of both passengers and other road users. On most journeys involving passenger vehicles with more than 16 seats (8 seats for international journeys), drivers must use a tachograph to record their work. This is an instrument behind what looks like the vehicle speedometer that produces a written record of when the vehicle was moving and stationary, its speed and distance travelled. Drivers are obliged to produce it on demand and their employers to keep it available for inspection for 12 months. With this incontrovertible evidence of their work being available Guild Members will not contemplate anything less than full compliance with this safety-based law.

However, in order to allow for the flexibility which they is essential in providing group transport, the hours rules are quite complex. In particular both daily and weekly rest periods can be reduced (within limits) and the reduction compensated within the three weeks following that in which the reduction is made. This means that on any particular day, what a driver can, or can not do may be affected by work done, or rest taken, up to four weeks previously.

When seeking a quotation or making a booking for a coach charter it is therefore essential for both parties to be clear about what is required so that it can be slotted legally and safely in to this longer time-scale. Remember too that vehicle movements directly before and after your hire also have to be taken in to account by the coach operator and driver.

For the guidance of coach charters, the driving hours rules are thus:

DRIVING PERIODS AND BREAKS
After no more than 4 ½ hours of actual driving a driver has to have a minimum of 45 minutes break - or begin a rest period. As an alternative, there may be breaks of at least 15 minutes each during the period of driving which total 45 minutes. Once the rest associated with a piece of driving has been completed, the 'clock starts to run again' for the next maximum 4 ½ hour driving spell.

DAILY DRIVING LIMITS
Between any two daily rest periods a driver can do a maximum of 9 hours actual driving. Twice in any week this may be increased to 10 hours. For the purposes of all these rules a week runs from the start of Monday through to the end of the following Sunday.

WORK OTHER THAN DRIVING
There are no limits as such on work other than driving (e.g. cleaning, luggage handling, etc.) that a driver may do. However, the maximum total of driving, breaks, and other work is constrained by the obligatory rest periods.

THE 'WORKING DAY'
A working day is not a calendar day, and need not be the time from when a driver starts work one day round to the time he starts work on the next day. The working day is, in fact, any period of no more than 24 hours (or 30 hours with a crew of two or more drivers). The actual length can be decided by the operator and driver. But at the end of the working day, but within it, there has to be a complete daily rest period. This does not have to be at any particular time in the working day; but as the daily driving period (above) is defined as being between two daily rest periods, in reality it usually means that a daily rest period will be taken at the end, or even at the beginning, or the working day.

The value of a variable length of working day will be obvious to those chartering coaches - whose coach movement requirement does not always fit into neat 24 hour blocks. One permutation is to work a short 'working day' to enable the next 'working day' to commence at the most suitable time for a 9 or 10 hour spell of driving (with breaks) to commence. This can be useful, for example, where a driver's daily rest can be taken on a ferry as part of a short working day. The next working day can then commence on disembarkation giving a full day available for travel to a distant destination.

Where a vehicle has a crew of two or more drivers, the minimum daily rest is fixed at 8 hours in a maximum 'working day' of 30 hours.

But where there is only one driver the flexibility necessary to meet the varied needs of road transport is achieved by permitting the driver to take daily rest in one of three ways:

Unbroken This is a continuous period of at least 11 hours. However, it can be reduced to 9 hours on three occasions in any week, but the shortfall has to be compensated by adding it to a rest period in the following week.

Split on a ferry Where the vehicle is travelling on a ferry, the rest can be broken once for a maximum period of 1 hour (e.g. to embark). The driver has to have a bunk or couchette available for both parts of this split rest, AND the applicable rest period has to be increased by one hour.

Split If this option is taken, the total daily rest has to be increased to 12 hours. But it can be taken in up to three pieces, as long as the one ending the working day is no less than 8 hours and the other(s) are of at least 1 hour. E.G. 2+2+8

WEEKLY REST
In every week (as defined above) the basic rule is that one of the daily rest periods has to be extended to 45 hours to form a weekly rest period. It does not, however, have to fall wholly within the Monday to Sunday week to which it relates as long as it either starts or finishes within that week. Thus, for example, a driver could drive on every day of a tour running from Monday to Sunday as long as he had either taken a weekly rest before he started, with some part of it extending in to the Monday; or he commenced a weekly rest no later than 2359 hours on Sunday. This too gives considerable flexibility to meet the needs of passenger groups.

But, in fact, the flexibility extends further. Firstly, the 45 hours can be reduced to 36 hours if the driver is working from his home base, or 24 hours if away on tour. But the reduction has to be compensated within the three weeks following.

There is another concession that applies to drivers on non-regular work: a weekly rest period can be postponed and taken in the following week. But all of the permutations relating to positioning of the weekly rest period are subject to an umbrella rule: weekly rest periods can be no more than 12 days apart.

It is indeed complicated, but only in order to balance safety with the all-essential flexibility. Coach hirers are urged to remember that these rules are there for the safety of passengers and other road users and they should not attempt to persuade drivers to break them. Whilst there is a limited defence available in the case of emergencies, it is restricted to exceeding maximum driving time only sufficiently to ensure the safety of passengers and the vehicle. This does not mean 'to complete a journey'. Typically it might allow the driver to get to the next motorway service area after his permitted hours expired. A delay, and a cost, may well be involved in sending out a relief driver in such circumstances. Hence the importance of agreeing the total movement plan at the time of booking a coach - and of making sure that passengers do not cause delays and deviations in this 'flight plan'.
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