Part 5 of the DDA places duties on transport providers. The duties have changed since the DDA was introduced in 1995 – these changes are summarised below.

DDA 1995

When the DDA was passed in 1995, any service relating to means of transport was exempted from Part 3 of the Act. However, not all services associated with transport were exempt. Those associated with transport infrastructure, for example, were covered by Part 3, and were therefore dealt with in the same way as other services.

As a consequence, most transport providers have always been subject to Part 3 in respect of certain services, including services at stations and airports, or information and timetabling services.

DDA 2005

Regulations made under the DDA 2005 lifted the Part 3 exemption in relation to certain types of transport vehicles. These regulations came into force in 2006.

The transport vehicles that are now regulated are:

• breakdown recovery vehicles
• hire (or rental) vehicles
• private hire vehicles
• public service vehicles (buses and coaches)
• rail vehicles
• taxis
• vehicles used on a system using a mode of guided transport (such as those on monorails)

What duties do transport providers have?

As with the other parts of the DDA, transport providers can discriminate in the following ways:

• treating the disabled person less favourably, for a reason relating to their disability, than they would treat people who are not disabled, and without justification
• failing to comply with the duty to make reasonable adjustments

For further guidance on the duties on transport providers under the DDA, refer to the Code of Practice: Provision and use of transport vehicles.