Number of seats licence question

hometruths

Been googling around without luck to find answer on something I'm unclear about.

I was thinking of buying a multi purpose vehicle to use mainly for carting stuff around, and occasionally would need 6 passenger seats, more often than not just two.

Ideally something on a track system, whereby seats can be whipped in and out fairly easily, as in this example:

This is a long wheel base Citroen Relay and in theory you could fit 11 seats in it.

I have a bog standard Category B license - i.e no more than 8 passengers.

Query I have is that am I licensed to drive a vehicle that has the potential capacity to take more than 8 seats, even if only 5 seats are fitted in it? its obviously under 3500kg etc.

bop1977

how many seats were fitted when it left the factory is the deciding factor.

hoodie6029

It’s a question for your insurance company really. Will they be happy to insure a vehicle that sometimes has 2 seats, sometimes has 6? Before you buy anything, be sure you can get cover at a reasonable rate.

zg3409

I have a minibus licence and I believe I can drive a 50 seater coach if there is less than 16 passangers. This is due to some minibusses being 24 seater with no equivalent licence.

The licence is the first question, then the total weight, then insurance etc. I would tread carefully and the vehicle may be registered as commercial or taxi psv so might need to be changed.

Spook_ie

Don't think that's correct you can drive the 24 seater on a D license as D license would cover it.

D1 only covers up to accommodation for 16

I have a D1 license and it's nothing like driving a catagory D bus

WildWater

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121081408#Comment_121081408

A C licence allows you to drive a vehicle in excess of 3,500kg designed and constructed for the carriage of no more than eight passengers in addition to the driver. If you rip the seats out of a bus it was still designed and constructed for the carriage of more than 8 people.

Now, if you get an engineers report and get it reclassified, registered,

taxed and insured as a truck then it would be a truck and you could drive it on a C licence. Good luck with that.

Vic_08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121081461#Comment_121081461

No. That is not correct. If it is designed for over 16 seats then a D licence is needed, regardless of how many people are onboard.

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121075368#Comment_121075368

How many seats are on the VLC is the deciding factor. Seats can be added or removed once an SQI certifies it and you inform Shannon to update the VLC. You can have a 3 seater vehicle converted to as many seats will fit, plenty of people have added seats to campers, or you can remove seats from a minibus to be able to drive on a B licence.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121077149#Comment_121077149

There's lots of cars where the seats are easily removed. The insurance is based off the seats on the VLC not on how many are used.