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BUSK Approved Tour Operators

What is BUSK Approved?


A BUSK Approved tour company will be pro-active to ensure coach drivers employed or sub contracted by them are provided with appropriate single room accommodation on all long-haul trips in the UK and abroad. 

Why are single rooms important?


Up to 30% of coach crashes are linked to driver fatigue. Coach drivers are sometimes expected to share rooms with co-drivers and even drivers from other companies they have never met before who snore or have other night time habits that keep co-drivers awake.

The outcome is not enough sleep. There can also be a problem on ferry crossings where up to four drivers share a very small cabin. Often a mixture of HGV and PSV drivers are expected to share in this way even though they are complete strangers and of mixed sex. What driver is going to be able to sleep under these conditions?

Final day of the trip abroad

The last day of a trip abroad can be a particular issue if drivers are not provided with the legally required day bed so they can sleep ahead of the overnight drive back to the UK. This 21-hour drive home is shared by two drivers. By the end of their driving shift, they may have been awake for more than 30 hours.

Drivers are telling BUSK that they struggle to stay alert under these circumstances.

BUSK Approved is one method of establishing if the tour company you are booking a trip with has driver and passenger safety as a priority over cost.  A BUSK Approved Tour Company listed on this website undergoes an independent audit every twelve  months so BUSK can evidence that the drivers they use on your trip will be well rested and refreshed each time they drive your party.

What  you can do to safeguard your party

It is very simple. At point of hire ask the tour company how drivers are accommodated. If a tour company cannot or will not guarantee that they will book drivers into single rooms somewhere quite then BUSK argues that they are failing to discharge a duty of care for passengers and drivers. Anyone making booking arrangements for drivers must ensure in law, that the arrangements allow the drivers to sleep adequately.  If the tour company you are booking with cannot give you written assurances that the drivers will be provided with suitable accommodation then how can you expect drivers to be refreshed each time they drive your party? It may be that your party will have to pay more but normally this is likely to be less than £10 per head. Remember, there are some tour companies that offer what seems to be a 'good deal' but this could be at the expense of compromising safety for your party by forcing drivers to share rooms. 

For more information about BUSK's coach driver safety campaign please visit You Tube BUSK clip: https://youtu.be/sBKpL0EWPKc and visit https://busk-uk.co.uk/events_and_campaigns/nightcap_campaign