I find it strange and perhaps worrying to note that no one has picked up on the driving licence changes from Jan 2014. From that date anyone with a manual car licence, and an auto (teflon) bus and coach licence will automatically get the old class 1 pcv entitlement to drive manual box buses. Details on Gov.uk website. Crazy.

My bus number (if any): RM531

Noticed this months ago, but I have given up on the crass stupidity of our politicians hence no comment. Paid for, and sat through 35 hours of waffle, including some of the ridiculous, downright dangerous, practices suggested to save fuel ('coasting'), in order to get a DCPC card and keep them happy. They then decide that it is safe for someone with no previous experience at all of manual gearboxes to 'aim' 44 tonnes with a multi- speed transmission or 60 passengers with a genuine crash gearbox.

I just hope that the runaway vehicle squashes one of them.

I'd like to see someone with a manual car licence tackle a GS or Lodekka gearbox!

I suspect the old adage about coating (or silent fifth as it used to be known) has been put away in a drawer. If you think about it logically, most auto boxes go into coast mode as soon as you take your foot off the gas; most modern vehicle have much better brakes than those we are used to to compensate for this.

Come to think of it, my 1947 P3 Rover 75 had a free wheel knob which disengaged gears when foot was removed from gas, and the brakes on that weren't the best in the world. But these days we have much lower death and casualty rates for much more traffic.

The automatic upgrade is NOT valid unless you have your licence renewed, so there's a money-making £25 tax for that privilege.

My bus number (if any): RML2532

Linky here: https://movingon.blog.gov.uk/2013/10/30/is-your-licence-an-automatic/

My bus number (if any): RML2532

The start date of this proposal has now been delayed to a date to be announced in February 2014.

My bus number (if any): RML2532