Serving Scarborough & District since 1983
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Volunteer Drivers

Become a vital part of our community by joining Scarborough Dial A Ride as a volunteer driver. You’ll play a key role in providing essential transport to those who need it most, helping them maintain their independence and stay connected with their community.

What’s involved as a Volunteer Driver?

As a volunteer driver, you’ll be responsible for transporting our passengers safely and comfortably to their destinations. You’ll receive full training, including MiDAS certification (for minibus drivers), and ongoing support from our team.

Whether it’s a local journey or a trip to a hospital, your contribution will make a significant difference in someone’s life.

See the FAQs below for more details.

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FAQs

We are more about qualities than qualifications, but you will need to be aged 25 or over, and of course you will need a current driving licence which entitles you to drive our vehicle types. No other special qualifications are required, but before driving a minibus you will receive training and certification through MiDAS (Minibus Driver Awareness Scheme) to ensure you’re fully prepared for the role.

If you would like to join us as a Minibus Driver, we will need you to commit a full day, typically starting at around 8.30am and finishing by 4.45pm. This could be one day per fortnight, one day per week, or more if you like.

As a volunteer Car Driver, you get to choose the specific journeys you want to do. We will let you know what journeys we have available, and you simply let us know which ones you are able to do. This could be just one every now and then, or several per week – it is entirely up to you.

No – we have our own vehicles and do not operate a service which uses volunteers’ own cars.

We try to keep things as simple as possible, so before taking-up a volunteer role with us, we will meet to chat through what you hope to gain from your time with us, as well as what we will need from you, of course.

The next step would be to go out for a ‘ride-along’ on one of our minibuses with a couple of our experienced team members, to observe them in action with our passengers. This will give you a really good idea of what the role involves and give you chance to chat to some of the people who are actually doing it.

Following a catch-up afterwards, if we are both happy to proceed, we will get the initial paperwork out of the way and in-house training started quickly – we don’t want to waste your valuable time, so we will try to work at your pace on this.

We will provide you with a link to complete the mandatory online MiDAS (Minibus Driver Awareness Scheme) theory training. Once you have completed this, we will take you out in one our minibuses for a guided drive, followed by you taking the wheel under observation. Assuming all is well, at the end of this drive, you will be ready to take your first Dial a Ride passengers.

We have a minimum age of just 18 for our passenger assistants, and to be a driver you need to be over 25 with a clean driving licence and with category D1 on your driving licence.

All volunteers are required to hold a satisfactory current DBS certificate, which we will help you to apply for.

All volunteers are supported with six-monthly refresher training to ensure that skills are kept up-to-date.

Our in-house Trainer will take you through everything you need to know to be able to do the role confidently and safely.

We provide unlimited tea, coffee and biscuits when you are at our base before, in-between or after your journeys. If you can’t get back to base for a much-needed cuppa, we will of course cover the cost of a drink while you are out.