I want to run a sightseeing cycling tour - what legality is involved?

[cyclefitt]

I want to lead a group of people who will be riding their own bikes around some local sites of touristic interest. It will be completed within 1 day. Ideally I will charge money for this, although I don't mind doing a "pay as you want" arrangement.

My question is: do I need to do some legal stuff before leading such a tour or can I run it as a "you are responsible for your own safety" type thing?

I have no idea if I would need insurance or some other legal thing to run such a tour.

Thank you.

[Jdsk]

In which country?

Jonathan

[roubaixtuesday]

https://www.unbiased.co.uk/discover/tax ... -insurance

[mjr]

My question is: do I need to do some legal stuff before leading such a tour or can I run it as a "you are responsible for your own safety" type thing?

I have no idea if I would need insurance or some other legal thing to run such a tour.

Whether you need insurance and what insurance primarily depends on how happy you would be to defend your actions in court. If you're running it as a business, you may want business public liability insurance anyway because your personal insurances may not cover you and the consequences of even a frivolous nuisance court claim might kill the business. If you employ anyone, I think employer's liability insurance is basically a legal requirement.

Ride organiser or leader insurance seems a good idea to me if you're leading a ride in the start / stop / clear / go now / split into two groups style. I expect you'd also need to risk assess the rides regularly, but that's probably a good idea anyway. For a lot of risks, you can probably rely on the highway authority maintaining the roads according to their management plan. To avoid extra liabilities from directing people into hazards beyond their abilities, a "ride as you would on your own" briefing at the start would be a good idea, I think, but that's not sufficient on its own if you then lapse into directing people. Now cue all the naysayers who will say you absolutely must have CUK insurance to suggest any route to others...

[slowster]

Are you competent to lead a group of people who are previously unknown to you on the sort of ride you are planning?

[pjclinch]

I Am Not A Lawyer, but my guess is what you legally can do and what you might be found liable for in court may well be distinct things.

I'd start with something like a Cycle Ride Leader qualification, which discusses what you can and can't, should and shouldn't do to some degree as well as teaching useful stuff like group management. Various are available, mine is a Cycling Scotland one, I think CUK do them too.

Pete.

[Nearholmer]

Putting myself in the OP’s shoes, I instantly feel uncomfortable about this.

Thinking about comparators:

- at one end, a club organised ride, where the ride leader (usually with nominated back-up) is trained, the riders have been coached in group riding, rides are risk-assessed in advance, and insurance is in place. Comfortable.

- at the other extreme, a completely informal group, mates getting together and going for a ride, maybe (hopefully) a bit of pre-ride chat about how to take it, but very obviously “every man and woman for themselves” when it comes to personal and public liability. Comfortable with the concept, comfortable to participate on a “case-by-case” basis.

The uncomfortableness comes from the possibility of getting into some middle-space of ambiguity.

Maybe worth signing-up and going on a tourist group ride in London (or somewhere else), and taking close note of how the established, some quite big, firms deal with it, things like their disclaimers (I bet you have to sign one), pre-ride briefings, whether they have a “tail gunner” as well as a ride-leader, group size limits, re-grouping routines such as known “pull off” points, ride leader training and qualification. They seem to manage to conduct safe rides with evidently inexperienced and easily distracted participants (I often have “heart in mouth” watching them!), so it can be done …… with a load of prep.

[Pinhead]

I want to lead a group of people who will be riding their own bikes around some local sites of touristic interest. It will be completed within 1 day. Ideally I will charge money for this, although I don't mind doing a "pay as you want" arrangement.

My question is: do I need to do some legal stuff before leading such a tour or can I run it as a "you are responsible for your own safety" type thing?

I have no idea if I would need insurance or some other legal thing to run such a tour.

Thank you.

To even ask "do I need to do some legal stuff " shows you have no idea, yes of course especially public liability, I suggest you spend a couple of weeks looking into business tax and small business startups

[AndyK]

I'm assuming you're UK-based. I'm also assuming you plan to do it regularly, not just as a one-off.

Do you need insurance? Probably not. Is it advisable? Probably.

In terms of legal obligations, the main thing to watch is whether your service comes under the "The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018". Provided your tour covers a period of less than 24 hours and does not include accommodation, you probably don't - but feel free to get proper legal advice on that. (Also if you employ anyone else then as mjr says employer's liability is a must.)

If you're planning to do this as a business, I would strongly recommend getting a business insurance package covering both public liability and professional indemnity. There are plenty of brokers out there. Contact a few, describe exactly what you intend to do, and get some quotes. When the quotes arrive check the small print to make sure they've understood what you told them and are offering something that will meet your needs. Don't be afraid to query it.

I would also strongly recommend getting some formal ride leader training, even if you're already very experienced at leading groups on rides. A certificate from a recognised cycling body will impress insurance underwriters and reassure potential customers. I'd love to recommend the Cycling UK courses (some of which I've done) but they only seem to do them to order for groups now. Maybe look at British Cycling's offerings, which are sometimes run as scheduled courses open to all. The BC course expects you to have basic first aid training as a prerequisite, but again that's not a bad idea for a tour guide.

If you've only led club rides with friends and/or experienced cyclists then it's well worth doing a course for practical reasons: it's a very different matter leading a bunch of people with wildly varying abilities who've never met you or each other before.

If you're doing this as a non-profit thing, or for a non-profit organisation (charity/social enterprise) then you might like to look at becoming a Cycling UK-affiliated organisation as a low-cost way of getting insurance cover for leading rides - and again, being able to write "Cycling UK affiliated" makes you sound more credible!

[AndyK]

Afterthought: If you are only planning to do this as a one-off, then find a local charity, tell them you want to run a guided bike tour as a fundraising event, latch onto their insurance arrangements, then take donations from participants and pass them on to the charity.
But again, if the charity's got any sense they will expect to see evidence that you're competent to run this kind of event, which is where those courses help.
Afterwards, try not to get sucked into organising an "Epic Sponsored London To Paris Bike Ride" for them...

[AndyK]

Maybe worth signing-up and going on a tourist group ride in London (or somewhere else), and taking close note of how the established, some quite big, firms deal with it, things like their disclaimers (I bet you have to sign one), pre-ride briefings, whether they have a “tail gunner” as well as a ride-leader, group size limits, re-grouping routines such as known “pull off” points, ride leader training and qualification. They seem to manage to conduct safe rides with evidently inexperienced and easily distracted participants (I often have “heart in mouth” watching them!), so it can be done …… with a load of prep.

Very good advice. Though some tour guides are, frankly, cowboys.

(Apologies to any fully-qualified prairie cattle wranglers out there.)

[mattheus]

Afterthought: If you are only planning to do this as a one-off, then find a local charity, tell them you want to run a guided bike tour as a fundraising event, latch onto their insurance arrangements, then take donations from participants and pass them on to the charity.
But again, if the charity's got any sense they will expect to see evidence that you're competent to run this kind of event, which is where those courses help.
Afterwards, try not to get sucked into organising an "Epic Sponsored London To Paris Bike Ride" for them...

And if you DO, for gawds sake don't come on here begging for sponsorship!

[good idea Andy, BTW ]

[Nicholas]

My question is: do I need to do some legal stuff before leading such a tour or can I run it as a "you are responsible for your own safety" type thing?

I have no idea if I would need insurance or some other legal thing to run such a tour.

With respect, shouldn't you be doing the research yourself rather than let others do the work for you?

[rareposter]

With respect, shouldn't you be doing the research yourself rather than let others do the work for you?

Technically, posting on a forum constitutes "research".

I want to lead a group of people who will be riding their own bikes around some local sites of touristic interest. It will be completed within 1 day. Ideally I will charge money for this, although I don't mind doing a "pay as you want" arrangement.

My question is: do I need to do some legal stuff before leading such a tour or can I run it as a "you are responsible for your own safety" type thing?

I have no idea if I would need insurance or some other legal thing to run such a tour.

More detail needed. Where is this, how long is the tour, how many people, is it something you're doing off your own back or on behalf of someone else, what's the terrain like, is it on or off-road, is it a one-off or is it going to be a regular thing, are you making a profit from it...?

Bluntly, if you're taking a couple of mates around a 5 mile loop then get on with it but if you're taking paying customers (of relatively unknown cycling experience / ability) on a 40 mile tour around the Yorkshire Dales, that's a very different proposition.

[TrevA]

If you were to run the rides under the auspices of either British Cycling or Cycling UK, then you would be covered by their ride leader’s insurance, providing you meet certain criteria. For BC, you can train up as a ride leader and then you can run your own rides under the “Let’s Ride” scheme. I doubt that you could charge for such rides, but you could ask for a donation towards your costs.

I lead rides for my cycling club, though I’ve not had formal training, I’m covered by the club’s British Cycling insurance, whilst leading rides on behalf of the club.