Tour operators: new requirements for buses will destroy excursion tourism

This article will discuss the rules for transporting groups of children on a bus . Over the past few years, several regulations related to this issue have been issued and amended. All of them were reviewed on pddmaster.ru.

This article contains generalized information and will be updated as legislation changes.

Please note that issues of organized transportation of children affect not only transport companies.

For example, if parents of schoolchildren want to organize an excursion for their children, then they will also have to comply with the transportation rules.

This article will discuss the documents required for transportation, requirements for buses and the people on them.

What is organized transportation of children?

Clause 1.2 of the traffic rules:

“Organized transportation of a group of children” - transportation on a bus that is not a route vehicle, a group of children of 8 or more people, carried out without their parents or other legal representatives.

Please note that organized transportation does not include:

• Children's ride on a minibus. For example, if children and their teacher go to the theater on trolleybus number 1.
• Transportation of 7 or less children.
• Transportation of 8 or more children and several parents, in which 7 or less children are traveling without parents.

Organized transportation includes transportation when:

• People travel on a bus that is not a route vehicle.
• Among the people there are at least 8 children whose parents are not present on the bus.

If the above conditions are met, then you should read this article to the end and study the transportation rules.

Participants of organized transportation

Currently, the list of persons who can participate in organized transportation is strictly limited. Clause 14 of the rules for transporting children by bus:

14. If a child or other person included in the list fails to appear, information about him or her is deleted from the list. In addition to the driver (drivers), other persons other than those indicated in the lists are not allowed on the bus. Monitoring compliance with these requirements is the responsibility of accompanying persons.

Only :

• driver(s);
• children included in the passenger list;
• accompanying persons included in the list of passengers;
• a medical worker included in the passenger list.

Please note that the legality of each person on the bus must be confirmed by an appropriate document. You cannot take a person on a trip without a document.

As an example, consider the following situation. The 11th grade of a secondary school is going on a tourist trip. At the same time, some students have reached the age of 18, i.e. they are not children. The rest of the class remains children. How to prepare documents in this case?

It's actually quite simple:

• Students under 18 years of age must be listed as children on the passenger list;
• Students over 18 years of age must be included on the passenger list as accompanying passengers.

Let's take a closer look at each of the trip participants.

Bus driver

The driver must meet the following requirements:

• working as a category D driver for 1 year out of the last 2 years (until January 1, 2021 - 12 out of the last 13 months);
• undergo pre-trip briefing;
• absence of punishment in the form of deprivation of rights or administrative arrest during the last year.

Children

Children under 18 years of age must be included as children on the passenger list.

Moreover, if there is at least one child under 7 years of age on the list, then the bus schedule must be drawn up so that the bus does not travel longer than 4 hours. That is, we are talking about the total duration of the trip. So it won’t be possible to take small children on long trips.

Accompanying

All accompanying persons must be included in the passenger list as accompanying persons.

Accompanying persons are assigned to each of the buses involved in transportation. The minimum number of accompanying persons is 1 person at each bus door intended for boarding.

If the bus has 2 doors, then there must be at least two accompanying people.

Note. From 1 January 2021, only 1 accompanying person is allowed on the bus if the group includes 20 children or less. In this case, passengers board and disembark through one door of the bus, near which there is an accompanying person.

The maximum number of accompanying persons is not limited.

For example, 8 children and 30 accompanying persons can travel on a bus.

One of the accompanying persons on each bus is designated as responsible.

a senior responsible escort is also appointed . Until October 1, 2019, the senior person in charge could only travel on the last bus in the convoy. After October 1, this requirement is canceled and the senior accompanying person can ride on any bus.

Adult passengers

All adult passengers on the bus must be included on the passenger list as companions.

Medical worker

A medical professional is only required if the trip meets both the following conditions:

• the trip is intercity (until January 1, 2021);
• the duration of the scheduled trip exceeds 12 hours;
• there are 3 or more buses in a convoy (from January 1, 2021).

From October 1, 2021, a medical worker can travel on any bus in the convoy. Previously, he was supposed to be on the last bus.

Requirements for the flight being operated

While driving along a given route, you need to drive at a speed of no more than 60 km/h, preferably during daylight hours. If the duration of one trip is no more than 12 hours, there can be one driver behind the wheel, if up to 16 hours - at least two. The rest of the second driver must be at least 8 hours. The driver cannot leave the bus if there are children on board. Only personal items should be kept in the cabin. If the flight duration is more than 4 hours, then children under 7 years old are not allowed on it.

Documents for organized transportation

Traffic police document

If transportation is carried out by one or two buses, then a copy of the traffic police notification .

Submitting a notification to the traffic police

If the transportation involves 3 or more buses, then a copy of the traffic police decision on assigning an escort or refusing to provide an escort is required. In case of a positive decision on the application, the convoy of buses is accompanied by one or more police vehicles.

List of all passengers

From October 1, 2021, all passengers can be included in a single list , that is, issuing separate lists for children, accompanying and adult passengers is not required.

For example, the list might look like this:

When filling out information about children, instead of the “Age” column, the “Date of Birth” column can be used.

Note. If a medical professional is involved in the trip, he must also be included in the passenger list. In addition, a license to carry out medical activities or an agreement with a medical organization must be attached.

Driver's document

Attention! From January 1, 2021, an additional driver document is no longer required .

The driver's document must indicate his full name and telephone number. If there are several drivers, then the document indicates the details of each of them.

Please note that we are not talking about a driver's license. A separate document is required, which must be prepared by the transportation organizer.

In addition, you don’t have to issue if the documents include a copy of the traffic police notification about the transportation. Such notification is mandatory if the transportation involves 1 or 2 buses.

Procedure for boarding passengers on the bus

Attention! From January 1, 2021, passenger boarding procedures are no longer required .

The order of boarding passengers includes information about how exactly it is controlled that exactly the passengers from the list got on the bus:

• according to documents (official ID, travel voucher, student card);
• according to the list of passengers;

Transportation route

Transportation route information must include:

• point of departure;
• intermediate pick-up/drop-off points;
• destination;
• stopping places for food and rest.

Note. Before October 1, 2021, a traffic schedule was also required, which should have indicated the time of arrival at different points along the route.

Additional documents

Documents that the driver must have only in some cases:

• The charter agreement or a copy thereof (if such an agreement was concluded).
• List of a set of food products if children are traveling for more than 3 hours (until January 1, 2021).

Please note that the originals of all the documents listed above must be kept for 90 days from the date of the trip , and if an accident involving victims occurred during the trip, then for 3 years.

What are the rules for transporting children on a tour bus?

Transporting children on a tour bus refers to the so-called organized transportation of a group of children.

Reference. The concept of organized transportation of a group of children

Organized transportation of a group of children is transportation on a bus, not related to a route vehicle, of a group of children of eight or more people, carried out without their legal representatives (for example, parents), except when the legal representative is an appointed accompanying person or medical professional ( clause 1.2 of the Traffic Rules, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 23, 1993 N 1090).

There are special requirements for the organization and implementation of transportation of a group of children by excursion buses.

Requirements for preparing organized transportation of children

For the organized transportation of a group of children, it is necessary to prepare the following documents (clause 4 of the Rules, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 17, 2013 N 1177):

1) charter agreement - in the case of organized transportation of a group of children under a charter agreement;

2) a document containing information about a medical worker, a copy of a license to carry out medical activities or a copy of an agreement with a medical organization or individual entrepreneur who has the appropriate license - in case of organized transportation of a group of children in intercity traffic by an organized transport convoy for more than 12 hours;

3) a copy of the decision to assign buses to be escorted by a vehicle (vehicles) of the State Traffic Inspectorate unit or a copy of the notification about the organized transportation of a group of children.

Note. If children are transported in at least three buses, the person responsible for organizing the transportation must submit an application to the State Traffic Inspectorate unit to escort transport convoys at least 10 days before the start of transportation. If transportation will be carried out by one or two buses, then no later than two days before the start of transportation, a notification about the organized transportation is submitted (clause 10 of the Rules; clause 12 of the Instructions, approved by Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia dated August 31, 2007 N 767; clause 1 Procedure, approved by Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia dated December 30, 2016 N 941);

4) a list of food products (packed rations, bottled water);

5) a document containing information about the driver (drivers);

6) route program, including a travel schedule with estimated transportation time, as well as places and times of rest stops, indicating the name of the legal entity or the surname, first name and patronymic of individual entrepreneurs operating in the field of providing hotel services, or the registry number of the tour operator carrying out the organization transportation;

7) lists of children and accompanying persons.

Note. When organizing the transportation of a group of children by bus, it is prohibited to allow persons not included in the list onto the bus and (or) transport on it, except for an appointed medical worker (clause 18 of the Rules);

a document containing the procedure for boarding children on the bus, except for the case where the specified procedure for boarding children is contained in the charter agreement.

Requirements for excursion buses and drivers

For the organized transportation of a group of children, a bus is used that meets the technical requirements for the transportation of passengers, is approved for participation in road traffic and is equipped with a tachograph, as well as GLONASS or GLONASS/GPS satellite navigation equipment (clause 3 of the Rules).

An identification sign “Transportation of Children” is installed on the bus for the organized transportation of children. The number of people transported must not exceed the number of seats equipped (clauses 22.3, 22.6 of the traffic rules).

Excursion bus trips for children are organized on routes lasting up to 12 hours with one driver and up to 16 hours with two drivers (clause 7 of the General Provisions of the Methodological Recommendations, approved by Rospotrebnadzor, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia on September 21, 2006).

Drivers are allowed to drive buses carrying out organized transportation of a group of children (clause 8 of the Rules):

1) having worked as a driver of a category “D” vehicle for at least one year out of the last three calendar years;

2) have not committed administrative offenses in the field of road traffic, for which administrative punishment is provided in the form of deprivation of the right to drive a vehicle or administrative arrest, during the last year;

3) have undergone pre-trip instruction on the safety of transporting children;

4) have passed a pre-trip medical examination.

Requirements for carrying out organized transportation of children

The person responsible for organizing the transportation of children ensures the presence of accompanying persons, and in case of organized transportation of a group of children in intercity traffic by a transport convoy for more than 12 hours, a medical worker (clause 12 of the Rules).

Buses carrying children outside populated areas must move at a speed of no more than 60 km/h (Section 10.3 of the Traffic Regulations).

The number of accompanying persons per bus is determined based on their presence at each door of the bus, while one of the accompanying persons is responsible for the organized transportation of a group of children on the corresponding bus. If two or more buses are used, then a senior person is appointed responsible for the organized transportation of a group of children. The medical worker and the senior person responsible for the organized transportation of a group of children must be on the bus that brings up the rear of the column (clause 14 of the Rules).

Three or more buses carrying a group of children are escorted by patrol cars of the State Traffic Inspectorate from 6 to 23 hours (clauses 33, 33.4 of the Instructions, approved by Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia dated August 31, 2007 N 767).

At night (from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.), organized transportation of a group of children to and from railway stations, airports is allowed, completion of the organized transportation of a group of children (delivery to the final destination or place of overnight stay) in case of an unplanned deviation from the traffic schedule (if there is a delay of ways), as well as organized transportation of a group of children, carried out on the basis of legal acts of the highest executive bodies of state power of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Moreover, after 23:00 the transportation distance should not exceed 100 km (clause 11 of the Rules).

If children are traveling according to the travel schedule for more than three hours, each bus must be provided with food sets (dry rations, bottled water) (clause 17 of the Rules).

The inclusion of children under seven years of age in a group of children for organized transportation by buses when they are on the route according to the schedule for more than four hours is not allowed (clause 9 of the Rules).

Note!

For violation of the requirements for the transportation of children, administrative liability is provided for both the driver and the officials and legal entities organizing the transportation of children (Parts 3 - 6 of Article 12.23 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

Related situations

What is the penalty for violating the rules for transporting people? Find out →

Bus for organized transportation

Paragraph 22.6 of the traffic rules:

22.6. Organized transportation of a group of children must be carried out in accordance with these Rules, as well as the rules approved by the Government of the Russian Federation, on a bus marked with identification marks “Transportation of Children”.

requirements apply to the bus :

• Installation of a sign “Transportation of children”. The sign is installed in front and behind the bus.
• Turn on a yellow or orange beacon (starting from July 1, 2021).
• The bus must be equipped with seat belts (from October 1, 2021).

In addition, a bus for the organized transportation of children must meet the requirements for all buses for the transportation of passengers:

• The bus must comply in terms of purpose and design with the technical requirements for the transportation of passengers.
• The bus must be permitted to participate in road traffic.
• Installation of tachograph.
• Installation of GLONASS or GLONASS/GPS satellite navigation equipment (not valid from March 19 to May 31, 2021).

Regulations

1. Traffic rules of the Russian Federation.
2. Law of the Russian Federation “On licensing of certain types of activities” dated August 8, 2001 No. 128 F3.
3. Law of the Russian Federation “On technical inspection of vehicles” dated July 1, 2011 No. 170.
4. Technical regulations on the safety of wheeled vehicles, approved by the Government of the Russian Federation on September 10, 2009.
5. Order of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation dated January 8, 1997 N 2 “On approval of the Regulations on ensuring the safety of passenger transportation by buses.”
6. Methodological recommendations for ensuring sanitary and epidemiological well-being and safety of transportation of organized groups of children by road, approved by the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare and the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate of the Russian Federation on September 21, 2006.

It is not difficult to notice that very serious measures are taken to ensure the safety of transporting the “flowers of life” on buses. And this helps keep the number of accidents to a minimum. Although, unfortunately, the notorious human factor sometimes works here too, negating all efforts, ignoring the rules for transporting children on buses, and leading to tragedy.