PSV Badges

With regards to PSV Badges can you please tell me if there is a way to find out how old they are, I have one number KK44508.

Reg Hart

16/08/11 - 07:19

KK41880 (mine) dates from May 1964. Hope that helps!

Ian Thompson

17/08/11 - 07:26

My first driver's badge was BB 50787 - Yorkshire Traffic Area 4 February 1965. Unfortunately, I can't find the number of my accompanying conductor's badge. Back then, if you moved home into another Traffic Area, you had to change your badge at the three year renewal date to conform, and, having moved to Farnborough, Hampshire, my next badges were conductor KK 56233 of 22 January 1968, and driver KK 47967 of 24 February 1968, from the South Eastern Traffic Area. Unfortunately, I lost my driver's badge on a train to Gatwick in 1971, and my replacement was KK 54990 issued from 5 September 1971. I retained these badge numbers for some years, by which time I had moved to Crawley, Sussex. The boundary between the South Eastern and Metropolitan Traffic Areas ran east to west across the centre of Crawley, and, around 1980, this was redrawn to put most of the town into the Metropolitan Area. Thus, without moving home one inch, I found myself from 10 March 1983 with a Metropolitan driver's badge
N 54990, the same number as my previous South Eastern badge but with the Metropolitan prefix. The saga had not yet ended, for a couple of years later the boundary was revised again, putting me back into the South Eastern Area with a new driver's badge KK 76486.

Roger Cox

26/08/11 - 07:35

My Dad joined West Yorkshire Road Car as a driver in 1967, and his badge number was BB55025. There was an air of quality and proficiency about the old white circular badges - the red rimmed ones stating 'PUBLIC SERVICE VEHICLE DRIVER' and the green rimmed ones proclaiming 'PUBLIC SERVICE VEHICLE CONDUCTOR'. What could be simpler or more effective? An article in an old copy of 'Bus & Coach Preservation' gave the traffic areas represented by the badge codes as: AA - Northern District; BB - Yorkshire; CC - North Western; DD - West Midlands; EE - East Midlands; FF - East Anglia; GG - South Wales; HH - Western; KK; South Eastern; LL - Northern Scotland; MM - Scotland/Scottish Borders; N - Metropolitan. The article noted that NN was also produced for the Metropolitan area, but this was apparently in error and the badges were not officially issued. Hope this is of help.

Brendan Smith

26/08/11 - 10:11

I had three badges in my 44 year career. BB53678 - my first conductor's badge in October 1957. BB43556 - my driver's badge in March 1961. BB94446 - my second conductor's badge, insisted upon by Leeds City Transport when joining them as a "direct driver/conductor. "I cherish all three badges and the wealth of wonderful experiences and memories and friends connected with them!!

Chris Youhill

26/08/11 - 18:00

When the Traffic Areas were initially set up, there was also a "Southern Traffic Area", using the letter J for licences and JJ for PSV badges. The limited amount of work it had to do soon showed that it was superfluous, and it was subsumed into the neighbouring Traffic Areas.

Roger Cox

28/08/11 - 15:53

The original PSV badges were very peculiar as they tended to have the lettering fading very easily. When my father worked in the paint shop at Yorkshire Woollen at Dewsbury he used to reletter badges for half a crown which probably made his beer money.

Philip Carlton

30/08/11 - 08:20

I often wondered why these badges were discontinued as they were a reliable way of identifying a driver or conductor without the need for name badges, nowadays often resisted for security reasons.

Geoff Kerr

05/10/15 - 09:51

From a post about 4 years ago (I know I am slow at catching up) Roger Cox mentions a Southern Traffic Area - issuing office Reading, and JJ Badges.
There were never any JJ Badges because the Traffic Area was absorbed in to the surrounding areas and closed on 31st December 1934.
The round Traffolyte/Formica badges were not issued until January 1935, so Southern Area badges would only have been the earlier enamelled hanging type.
For more information readers may want to look at my webpage at this link

Stephen Howarth

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