Nanny van 5806125 223971256 2008-07-06T19:30:19Z Lightbot 7178666 Units/dates/other {{Orphan|date=November 2006}} [[Image:NannyVan20060727-DSCN4031.jpg|thumb|A modern nanny van parked in school. It is much bigger than those at 1980s.]] '''Nanny van''' ({{zh-t|t=褓姆車}}) is a special kind of [[school bus]] service in [[Hong Kong]]. Its formal name shall be '''School Private Light Bus'''. It gained popularity during the 1980s, at which it reaches its peak and become some sort of "illegal" public transportation. Later, due to unauthorized public transportation running of the vans, the government banned it as public transportation and required all existing servicing nanny vans to register and operated on designated routes. At current, all Nanny vans in service are required by the government to have both the Chinese text "學校私家小巴" and the English text "SCHOOL PRIVATE LIGHT BUS" painted on the surface of the vans. ==History== Nanny vans are originally a small van in Hong Kong to receive pre-school children from their home to their nurseries and kindergartens. Most of these vans are run by private agreement between the nurseries and kindergartens with the drivers. These original nanny vans seated for four to five adults and seats in the van were removed and replaced with a narrow sofa around the cabinet. With such arrangement, the van can carry around 10-12 children. During 1980s, when the living standard in Hong Kong kept on raising, some drivers want to earn extra income with their vans. Therefore, when it was the time for secondary schools to have their lunch hours, these vans started to gather at places to pick school girls back to school. Each students need to pay for about $1-$2 at that time, about half the price for them to share the rent to ride a taxi. Most of these vans serviced at North Point. They either stopped at the North Point Pier or under the Fortress Hill. They picked up school girls until all the seats are occupied. Then they will take them along the Cloud View Road, where most schools were situated and stop at each school. ==Regulated service== At around early 1990s, there was an accident in North Point that such nanny van was involved and caused its passengers injured. Their illegal service was then known by the government. The government then put a ban on such services, and required all servicing nanny vans to run only along designated routes. Nowadays, nanny vans are still available in Hong Kong. For some schools who can afford their own vans, they bought several to service their school children. For less able schools, they still continue to sign servicing agreement with van drivers. These drivers provide school bus services for some remote area in Hong Kong and drive the school children from rural villages to schools in urban area. They have grown to the size of a mini bus. ==External links== * [http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200304/01/0401145.htm Request from Hong Kong Governemnt for Nanny Van owners to keep their vans hygiene during the SARS outbreak] [[Category:School buses]] [[Category:Bus transport in Hong Kong]] {{HK-stub}} [[zh:褓姆車]]