Permits, Documentation and Record Keeping
This domain tests the paper trail that makes a bus legal and a shift auditable. Examiners ask which documents must be on the vehicle, what the permit authorises, and which records the conductor maintains.
Documents carried on the vehicle
Registration certificate, certificate of fitness, valid insurance, stage carriage permit, tax receipt, pollution under control certificate, and the driver's licence. The conductor's licence is carried personally. All must be produced on demand to police and transport officials.
What the permit controls
The stage carriage permit fixes the route, the number of trips, the timings, the stops, the fare table and the seating and standing capacity. Running outside the permitted route or beyond permitted trips is a permit violation even if every other document is in order. The permit is displayed as required.
Records the conductor keeps
- Trip sheet: actual departure and arrival times, trips run, and any curtailment with the reason.
- Waybill or cash sheet: opening and closing ticket serials, tickets sold, cash collected.
- Ticket stock register: issue and return of ticket books.
- Incident register: accidents, breakdowns, misconduct, medical emergencies and harassment complaints.
- Lost property register and complaint register.
- Extinguisher and first aid box check entries.
Worked example
A check inspector boards and asks for the waybill, permit and ticket stock. Reasoning: produce all three at once and calmly. If the trip sheet has been filled in only at the terminus rather than trip by trip, that is a record-keeping failure in itself, separate from any ticketing offence found.
Traps that cost marks
Filling in the trip sheet retrospectively; assuming a valid permit excuses running outside the permitted route; and leaving the fitness or pollution certificate at the depot.