When Government Policy Is Damaging To Tourism Growth In Wales And England
Well, when wasn’t it? So here we are again, having another moan directed at government policy in Wales (and England) that seems to be directly aimed at restricting growth in a significant sector, tourism.
Members of the Senedd and Members of Parliament are fully aware that legislation across a raft of departments is not fit for purpose and has never been. But act? Of course not. We know that they know that the Driver Guide legislation (there isn’t any, hence the problem) is strangling growth, they’ve been told this in numerous meetings. they also know that their counterparts in Scotland and Northern Ireland see things very differently. Maybe, they have other priorities, but that indicates that tourism in Wales and England is of very low concern to those with the power to act…
And due to this inability to have fit-for-purpose legislation, the average tourism provider is unable to thrive.
Driver Guides in Scotland and Northern Ireland can work without the need for any kind of license.
Driver guides in England and Wales are told that they must gain three licenses, at considerable cost in both time and money, and pay the astronomical insurance fees associated with being a taxi driver. Yes, the governments of England and Wales see driver guides as taxi drivers and force them to obtain an inappropriate operator’s license, vehicle license and a driver’s license. Read about this here:
Driver guides are a very different animal to a taxi firm. Often working for just part of the year, due to the highs and lows of seasonal demand, driver guides are more often out of their vehicle, with their clients, guiding castles, hills, Roman remains and waterfalls, than they are in their vehicle. The driving is secondary to the day’s activities. Wales Outdoors averages two hours driving over a nine hour day and a maximum of just four and half hours driving with clients, per week, over the course of a year.
And the legislation is worse than you could ever imagine. If a driver guide obtains all the licenses, you’d think they would be able to employ any driver guide with a PHV driver’s license. Nope. An operator can only employ a PHV driver who gained their ticket from the same local authority area. This puts a big full stop on the momentum of a business and its potential to scale. Even if Wales Outdoors became a PHV operator, we would not be able to employ professional tourist guides who hold a PHV driver’s license from other local authority areas! Utterly nonsensical stuff, right?
The result is that there is a dire shortage of driver guides in Wales and in England. This, then, is the biggest brake to the growth of tourism products in Wales, given the trend towards bespoke and unique private tours across tourism provision in Wales. This and the fact that any tourism operator offering a lift to a client, whether they pay for that lift or not, is breaking the law in Wales and England (but not in Scotland or Northern Ireland) if they do not hold the required licenses for taxi firm status!
Here is the law:
England and Wales
England and Wales come under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976. As with London, driver-guides need a PHV operator's licence to accept bookings. They also need a PHV driving licence and a PHV vehicle licence.
Remember, if the vehicle or the driver does not carry the proper license, the vehicle is not insured, and they are breaking the law.
Scotland
PHV licences are not required if no more than one driver-guiding assignment per day is undertaken.
Northern Ireland
Driver-guides in Northern Ireland do not require PHV licences.
What you can do
We therefore call on all involved in tourism in Wales to pressure their relevant authorities and membership associations and have this brake on the growth of products for visitors to Wales removed. It really is quite a simple thing, politicians in Wales can simply look at the rules in Scotland and Northern Ireland and bring Wales in line with those rules, with a flick of a pen, so to speak.
The Wales Outdoors solution
We have decided not to go down the PHV route, with its multiple licenses, making a taxi company out of a small tourism business. We are in the process of removing all private tours that include transport from our portfolio, and where we transport clients these days will be advertised driver guided days that individuals can join. We’ll have flexible pricing, so the same rate as now for the high season and likely doubling in price for the low season. Along with the crazy requirement for a vehicle yard (we only have one vehicle) and also for maintenance checks by a designated PSV garage every 10 - 12 weeks, the PSV route is not ideal, it’s still not fit for purpose, but it’s all that we have available as a workable solution given the chaos of the legislation.
What the PSV route does ensure is to mark our vehicle out as one of the safest driver guiding vehicles in Wales, it being regularly checked for safety features by a PSV specialist, whereas a PHV is only checked once a year.
We will not be able to take on private bookings and so all Wales tours are out. And we will not be able to fill any gaps, picking up those driver guide jobs that we see agencies and our professional membership organisation giving shout-outs for. This then will remain as a brake on our growth, but it is the lesser of two evils…
Once again, we ask those with a voice to urge the Welsh Government to do something about this obviously damaging legislation to tourism in Wales.
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