Does this sort of service exist? Or is it only for secondary age kids?

This should be good.

🍿

One of my kids had one few a few months when we moved, paid for by the council because there was no space to move him to a school within 2.5 miles or some arbitrary figure like that.

They do it round us (Cumbria) since they sacked all the buses off

Probably best speak to your school, they will have the people who do transport for them, it certainly has existed in rural areas.

Or just get your au pair a car 😉

It’s quite normal for children heading to alternative provision, those with additional needs and in rural places.

I’m talking about paying for it, not asking for free.

yes, the school will have a list of providers who they might be able to put you in touch with who have all the relevant paperwork and checks in place

Probably needs a responsible adult. Pupils with Sen will have and ANA to support and cover everyone’s back.

It’s quite normal for children heading to alternative provision, those with additional needs and in rural places.

…is the correct answer.

My FIL did it for years, he was CRB checked and other stuff I think. Mostly it was special needs kids along with carers but often he’d pick up 2 kids from their houses and back every day.

molgrips – I think you are proposing paying a taxi yourself rather than asking the local authority to provide one (which as others say is not that unusual when the right school for the kids is a long way but there aren’t enough pupils to justify a bus). Most of the larger taxi firms round here (and even some small ones) have school contracts, no reason you can’t engage them on similar terms. Your issue might actually be finding a reliable driver who has the right checks/paperwork and isn’t already committed to a contract.

Around me its called a Parent

Trying to work out a way that my wife can work without having to leave at 3pm.

Errrrrrrrrrrrr. Am I being stupid here, if you need a taxi to bring your kids home so your wife can work. Who TF is looking after them when they get home?

Taxi driver will take looooong way home and be the childminder for the duration, obviously

Am I being stupid here, if you need a taxi to bring your kids home so your wife can work. Who TF is looking after them when they get home?

Taxi takes kids to school so my wife can go straight to work; after school taxi brings kids to wife’s workplace. That gains an hour in the day. Then at least with some jobs the kids can hang around at the workplace for a short while.

Makes sense. Dunno why everyone’s so uppity bout that.

Im a part time taxi driver.

Yes it’s normal, needs to be pre-arranged and agreed with the school and Taxi firm as you need a regular allocation of driver for the kids to be released to them. This should be in writing to both, I’d suggest the child should also keep a copy in bag incase of substitute teachers. Speak to the school first as they may have a council contract already that may make it cheaper for you (if the vehicle is in the area and has space), or you could use the same firm.

All taxi drivers must conform to the local and District councils licensing, so will be DBS / CRB checked, In Gloucestershire we have to go on a safeguarding course in addition which specifically deals with kids and vulnerable people.

If it’s a good firm they’d send around the driver/s at a convenient time to meet the kid/s and discuss the arrangement with you. If they wont do this, don’t use them. You’ll need to take their personal taxi/private hire licence number to put in your letter as well as the operators licence number and telephone numbers. If you or your child is not happy with the driver, for any reason, ask for a different driver. You could ask for the drivers mobile number, they may or may not be happy to give this to you.

I’d also suggest a fixed daily rate payment via direct debit or weekly/monthly invoicing rather than the meter or giving the child cash – safer for driver as well as child.

Makes sense. Dunno why everyone’s so uppity bout that.

It’s the default reaction round here tbh. 👍

If it’s a good firm they’d send around the driver/s at a convenient time to meet the kid/s and discuss the arrangement with you. If they wont do this, don’t use them. 

Your in Cardiff MG. I’ve never heard of this being done for private bookings. The call will generally go on to the circuit so any one of dozens of drivers could pick up the job on a daily basis, having a regular driver is normally only for council school runs.
But the arrangement your looking for is quite normal, speak to the school and find out their policies regarding private taxi drop offs and pickups. Then phone around the taxi companies. Every driver who might pick your kids up will be licenced, DBS checked ect.

Taxi takes kids to school so my wife can go straight to work; after school taxi brings kids to wife’s workplace. That gains an hour in the day. Then at least with some jobs the kids can hang around at the workplace for a short while.

Fair enough.

The call will generally go on to the circuit so any one of dozens of drivers could pick up the job on a daily basis, having a regular driver is normally only for council school runs.

Personaly I wouldnt go with a large firm then, primarily from a safe garding point of view, you, an the school need to know who your releasing the child too especially at primary schools age.
Tbf City and rural options are a little different though. In my area there are only 3 people / firms covering a very large rural area in private hire rather than taxi format. The taxi firms in the towns (12miles away) charge more to even come out to us, I’m generally 1/2 the cost of a ‘local taxi’ firm for short trips.
Personally if love a regular school run, as its only part time for me, but other private hire drivers would turn it down as its blocks out 2/3rds of the year for larger work (Airport runs etc) .

Personally if love a regular school run,

Glad someone does 🙂

Well it’d pay for the insurance 😜

Tbf City and rural options are a little different though. In my area there are only 3 people / firms covering a very large rural area in private hire rather than taxi format. 

This is very much the case, 1,700 taxi’s in Cardiff including private hire and hackney.
If MG wanted a regular driver he’d have to pay far more than the normal fare. For an individual to guarantee a pick up at a set time they can’t take a job for probably 40-45 mins before hand. Even a simple one pickup job would be 2hrs of my time.
My current school run pays £35 a day and thats not using my own vehicle so I’m not paying deisel ect.

That’s how much the parents pay?

No its a council contract. Its 4 girls two in wheelchairs. £35 is what I get payed then there’s Miss taxi who’s doing the escort untill she decides what to do with herself 🙄. Then the contractor who owns the vehicle, it probably costs the council nearly £500 a week !!! Incredibly all the parents have the means to get the children to school themselves. They apply for school transport because they can.
For you MG if your kids were picked up of the book by the closest driver at the time, you’d expect to pay more or less the actual fare which is obviously a distance time thing.
Getting a regular driver is the expensive bit because your paying for his down time as well as the journey.

Does the school not offer an after hours type club? Might be cheaper than cabs – our youngest uses the after school option one day a week just because she loves it. Breakfast club also widely used at our school. Effectively you could have 07.45 – 17.30 cover if you needed it.

In the far east everyone uses private school “bus” van type. In the school bus there can accommodate between 20 to 30 children like packed sardine. All safe as the school bus is panted in yellow and most drivers tend to give them priority or slow down when the see them.

The parents pay around equivalent of £40 a month to have their children pick up from their door steps and drop them in front of the school gate. The school bus would pick the children up when they finish their lessons and get them home.

This is the norm in the far east but in the UK this will not happen due to security etc to prevent such service even available. All the bus drivers are self employed by the way.

Surely a child minder for an hour before school and 2 hours after school would be better? 15 hours per week? 10-12/h. Children dropped at school and collected/taken home included.

Or is there a breakfast/after school club?

Does the school not offer an after hours type club?

Yeah, they do, but of course it’s over-subscribed, then she still has to spend time travelling to get the kids that she could be booking to work.

Every driver who might pick your kids up will be licenced, DBS checked ect.

As I understand it, here any private hire driver goes through checks with the council to get their badge, but any driver doing official school runs has to go through a higher level of check. I personally don’t put a lot of weight on such checks. At the school where my kids attends there are not normally any checks on who the children are collected by, but you’d need to know the kids were old enough/responsible enough to know what to do if a different driver came or nobody was there at all.

This is the norm in the far east but in the UK this will not happen due to security etc to prevent such service even available. All the bus drivers are self employed by the way.

I don’t see any reason why such a model could not work in the UK – one of the larger schools in our area has an after school club (an entirely privately run affair) which has a minibus that does pickups from smaller schools. Many private schools have busseses that must be paid for by the parents.

The council obligation to provide free transport in many circumstance would be the real barrier to commercial success!