SEND TRANSPORT
BRADFORD’S LARGEST SCHOOL TRANSPORT PROVIDER ISSUES IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ITS DRIVERS
As Bradford Council begins allocating school transport runs for the new academic year, Local Cars Bradford has sent a message to its drivers to explain why it has chosen not to lower its pricing structure or standards, rather than accept rates it believes are financially unsustainable. In the message which was forwarded to PHTM by one of the drivers, the company says it will “not race to the bottom” on school transport contracts if doing so risks the financial sustainability of its drivers or the quality and reliability of the service provided to children.
A focus on send children: Local Cars says school transport is not simply another journey. For SEND and vulnerable children, having a familiar driver, being collected on time and maintaining a consistent routine throughout the school year can be extremely important. The company says it would rather operate fewer school runs at realistic rates than accept contracts at prices that could make it difficult to maintain those standards.
Drivers must also make it pay: Local Cars says drivers are central to providing a reliable service and school runs must be financially worthwhile for them too. The company acknowledges that drivers may be approached by other operators offering school transport work and, while it has no intention of preventing drivers working elsewhere, reminds them that Local cars pay drivers weekly,
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Ultimately, the priority must be a reliable, properly resourced, and consistently covered transport service – particularly when vulnerable and SEND children are involved.
The bigger question… Should Bradford
Council be
despite sometimes waiting up to eight weeks itself to receive payment for account work. It also urges drivers to consider the true cost of taking on school contracts including fuel, insurance, vehicle running costs, their time, and the planned requirement for CCTV to be installed in all school contract vehicles from January 2027.
“Quality should not be sacrificed for price.” A wider concern: There is also a wider question about whether operators accepting school transport work actually have the drivers, vehicles and resources available to fulfil them. If a firm doesn’t have the drivers or availability to provide a service, should it really be advertising on social media for resources to cover a council contract it has already accepted? And shouldn’t a council consider an operator’s actual capacity to deliver the work before allocating it, rather than relying on operators finding the necessary resources afterwards?
looking more closely not only at the prices being accepted, but also whether operators actually have the drivers, vehicles and capacity to deliver those contracts reliably throughout the school year? Local Cars says that sustainable prices, committed drivers and consistent care for children must come before simply securing another contract.
Dave Lawrie, Director NPHTA
commented: “Well said local cars. “All too often we
see
unscrupulous operators reaching out on social media for drivers and indeed passenger assistants to cover school contact work, which clearly verifies one of the issues raised within this post; operators should only be bidding for the number of contracts to match the number of drivers and vehicles they have in place to fulfil them. “We see all too often bids being undercut and left unaffordable and unsustainable to maintain. This does indeed have an impact on the drivers’ hourly rate versus their overheads which are constantly increasing. “School contracts should not be a race to the bottom, as doing so impacts the very children who rely on our services the most.”
SEPTEMBER 2026 PHTM
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