The standard returns to the deadlines of the original legislation after the end of the deadline extended by the pandemic in 2021.
The safety conditions that must be met for school and child transport in Spain are set out in Royal Decree 443/2001 of 27 April 2001. It establishes the requirements that must guarantee the protection of children and young people during their journeys in the vehicles that transport them from their homes to their schools. Specifically, this regulation establishes the maximum age of vehicles that can be used for regular public transport for special use of schoolchildren by road, regular public passenger transport for general use by road, occasional public passenger transport by bus and complementary private passenger transport by road, when one third or more of the passengers are under sixteen years of age.
How long? This Royal Decree establishes 16 years as the maximum age of vehicles used to transport minors. However, during the pandemic, the legislation was modified in order to facilitate the management of passenger transport companies, which were being affected by the ups and downs caused by the pandemic.
In 2021, an additional provision was enacted that extended the age of vehicles during the course of that year and the present one, Law 13/2021 of 1 October. What did the rule say? “Exceptionally, during the school years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, regular public transport for special use of schoolchildren by road included in letter a) of Article 1 of Royal Decree 443/2001, of 27 April, on safety conditions in school and child transport, may be provided with vehicles older than ten years and less than eighteen years at the start of the school year for the Peninsula and twenty years in the case of the Autonomous Communities of the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, computed from its first registration, provided that the applicant proves that the vehicle was previously used for this type of transport, or presents the certificate of scrapping of another vehicle that in the current or previous school year had been assigned to a regular transport authorisation for special use of schoolchildren, and provided that it has satisfactorily passed a technical inspection under the terms provided for in Article 6 of Royal Decree 443/2001, of 27 April. For the purposes of calculating the length of service, 1 September shall be considered the starting date for school transport”.
Therefore, the deadline announced by this regulation is 1 September 2023, which means that the Spanish Government is once again setting the maximum age of vehicles used for passenger transport in many areas at 16 years. Remember that, if this is your case, you must renew the fleet dedicated to these uses as non-compliance can lead to penalties and loss of contracts.