ASA Adjudication on GM Coachwork Ltd

Ad

Claims on the home page of MiniBus Lite's website stated "MiniBus Lite is the only 17 seater minibus you can drive on a standard manual car licence. The GM Coachwork Minibus Lite is the UK's first 17 seater minibus (including driver) weighing less than 3.5 tonnes. The vehicle's low weight means that anyone with a current, valid UK full driving licence which they have held for over 2 years can drive it. This means that organisations such as schools can allow more of their staff to drive the school minibus without incurring the cost of training for a D1 licence. The minibus is ideal for use by schools, care homes and other such organisations ... ".

Issue

Worcestershire County Council challenged whether the claims "MiniBus Lite is the only 17 seater minibus you can drive on a standard manual car licence" and "The vehicle's low weight means that anyone with a current, valid UK full driving licence which they have held for over 2 years can drive it" were misleading and could be substantiated.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

Response

GM Coachwork Ltd (GMC) said they stood by their claim that the Minibus Lite could be driven on a standard manual car licence and they provided two documents to support this: a leaflet prepared by the DVLA entitled "Driving a minibus" (DVLA leaflet); and the Department for Transport Guidelines on Incidental Driving of Minibuses (DFT Guidelines). They pointed out that a page on their website headed "Legally driving a minibus" outlined the licence conditions that allowed an individual to drive a minibus on a standard car licence. GMC said they accepted that the headline claim "MiniBus Lite is the only 17 seater minibus you can drive on a standard manual car licence" needed clearer clarification and they offered to amend the website so that it linked the claim to the "Legally driving a minibus" web page.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA accepted that the documents provided by GMC confirmed that a 17-seater minibus (including driver) could be driven on a standard manual car licence, subject to certain conditions which depended on whether the licence was issued before or after 1 January 1997. We noted two of the conditions for those holding a licence issued after 1 January 1997, a category B licence, included the fact that the licence had to have been held for at least 2 years and the maximum weight of the vehicle had to be 3.5 tonnes, but noted that other conditions also applied. However, we noted that the claims "MiniBus Lite is the only 17 seater minibus you can drive on a standard manual licence" and "anyone with a current, valid UK full driving licence which they have held for over 2 years can drive it" were not qualified. Whilst we welcomed GMC's offer to link the claims to qualifying text on the "Legally driving a minibus" page, we noted that the page contained some, but not all, of the conditions required for driving a minibus under a category B car licence, and we also noted that it contained some incorrect information. Because the claims "MiniBus Lite is the only 17 seater minibus you can drive on a standard manual car licence" and "The vehicle's low weight means that anyone with a current, valid UK full driving licence which they have held for over 2 years can drive it" were not suitably qualified with clear and accurate qualifying text setting out all the conditions required to drive the MiniBus Lite on a standard manual car licence, we concluded that the claims were not substantiated and were therefore misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation), 3.9 and 3.10 (Qualifications) and 3.11 (Exaggeration).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told GMC not to make further claims that the MiniBus Lite could be driven on a standard manual car licence without providing clear and accurate qualifying text setting out the required conditions.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)