pitway Posted December 7, 2006 Share Posted December 7, 2006 Does anybody know what the current regulations are for Driving a Coach in France, Do you need the FIMO/FCOS or equivelent. I have had a licence in the UK since 1988 if that makes a difference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Avery Posted December 7, 2006 Share Posted December 7, 2006 You can drive UK registered vehicles being legally used in France on a UK PSV. That means that the vehicle is owned and registered in the UK and is being legally used in France as part of a UK business, you should not drive a UK registered PSV that is being used in France by a French company without being French registered and annually CT'd in France. ( PSVs are annually Ct'd in France) AFAIK you can drive a French PSV with a UK car license with up to 8 passengers provided that they are not fare paying passengers. In order to drive a French PSV with fare paying passengers, you must have a French PSV license and the manual they give you for the theory test is massive and of course in French. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunday Driver Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 The licence requirements for driving coaches in France are the same as in the UK - category B for up to nine seats, category D for over nine seats. The hire or reward aspect is immaterial - the number of seats fitted determines the category required. Your UK category D licence will be valid for use in France.FIMO is the basic initial road transport training certification for HGV and public service drivers. FCOS is the compulsory five yearly refresher training course for professional drivers.In your case, you will be exempt from FIMO if you have the Certificat de Formation Professionnelle (CFP) module M138 for coach drivers. This covers driving and road safety aspects together with traffic regulations and basic preventative maintenance. It also specialises in international transport, ticketting and tariffing, passenger safety and customer relations. The course duration is 380 hours. As Ron says, you will need to be able to read and speak French. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busy Bee Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 Hi,I have worked for a french company driving a coach for the last few years with a UK category D licence. In December last year my employer sent me to take the FCOS (along with all his other drivers) as it was now compulsory for all professional drivers to take this course. Apparently I qualified for a FIMO exemption certificate due to the length of time I had already had the licence but had to now take the FCOS. I duly went along and completed two days of classroom theory and a day of driving along with a dozen other drivers and came out with an FCOS certificate that I have to carry along with my UK driving licence. The course is only available in French and is somewhat different to the UK, it has many additional regulations, lots of mechanical information and French driving hours are shorter and supercede EU rules! An interesting experience but at least I can't be queried by any official body and am fully legal. Makes it very tricky for non french to work driving a coach!If you are registered unemployed you may get assistance from the ANPE to upgrade, to help you get a job.Tracy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunday Driver Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 Tracy is right - FCOS is a requirement which is not exempted (typed in too many initials there!). I've edited my earlier post to reflect this correction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitway Posted December 11, 2006 Author Share Posted December 11, 2006 Thanks everybody for the information, very useful and confirmed my thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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