True Mike , however............
Unless you can get a body of people to do it together it is just so much
wasted effort. It gets to a point where there are just better ways to spend
your time if you don't enjoy it and are upset by the frustration you get .

The last time I complained to my local MP about something, he was very
sympathetic and I even got a nasty reply from the b/cat in Canberra, however
they wouldn't budge on the point.
Neverthless I will write to the RTA and the state member.
My main complaint is that they are insisting  on an approved signatory to ok
it as it apparently it is a change of adr category. I rang the closest guy
who said ,Yes I have done several of these....I have to inspect and do a
report....$175.
Charging $175 to write a letter saying that a seat has been removed seems a
rip off to me and the RTA are apparently backing it. The regs now say
anything over 10 seats is a bus.

Incidentally, when I purchased the van at auction it was missing one seat
which had been removed by the previous Gov dept owner so I have never had
the full seating.
Bristan

Sorry.

Coming in late on this one.
I had a similar problem a few years back in that the VW Kombi I owned
was technically a bus due to leaving the factory with 9 seats.

I did not of course actually possess or have use for 9 seats and didn't
give it a thought until Main Roads started hassling me to have my "bus"
inspected.

The solution was to find an approved vehicle modifier, who could count
to three (the sum total of seats actually fitted during my ownership of
it) who then affixed a supplementary plate above the manufacturer's
data plate attesting to it's possession of only threes seats.

Cost $30.

I doubt that an engineers report will be necessary to simply account
for seats that are not there anymore. This issue will arise often with
some of the imported Japanese people movers that have an ex-factory
capacity greater than that which various States mandate as requiring a
Bus license to operate. Toyota for one supplies a bar fixture that is
placed behind whatever row of seats comprises the maximum that can be
operated by a "normal" sedan type license and designates anything after
the bar as "luggage space".

I'd have a talk to someone in whatever the transport Dept is named in
your State, and not the relatively un-knowledgeable and over worked
ones on a counter in a public contact office and ask them what
provisions apply for simply removing seats so that there are, on a
permanent basis, fewer than the number indicated on the manufacturer's
data plate.

Tony Smith