Rules

Chapters:

All rules are available in english. If you want to help to translate it please contact.

Rules to describe vehicles

1. Country subdivision
1.1. We are adding places (cities or towns) which have registered operators or settlements having municipal privileges.
1.2. Photos should be connected in order of country subdivision rules.
  1.2a In general, do not add cities/villages with population smaller than 1 000 people, unless there is no other larger municipality in close proximity.
  1.2b In case of large metropolitan areas, which consist of many districts or boroughs officially treated as independent towns (e.g. London, Brussels), we do not fall into details and we treat the entire area a a single city.
  1.2c list of subdivistion rules by country:
- Poland / Polska - gmina
- Hungary / Magyarország - megyei jogú város

2. Operators
2.1 Operators should be added to place where main residence of company is located. No matters where company using its vehicles.
2.2. We are writing only data we are sure. If we do not know, leave field blank.
2.2.1. In field "Full name" we should write full name of operator without abbreviations and suffixes like GmBh, DOO, SA etc. In case we are adding unknown operator we can insert "?" here.
2.2.2. In field "Abbreviation" we should add abbreviation of operators name like "MPK" from "Miejskie Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacyjne". Try to make the abbreviation as short as possible and do not use quotation marks. Descriptions and other information are not allowed here. In case we are adding unknown operator we can insert "?" here.
2.2.3. Field "Address" should be filled with postal code, city and number of house (if applicable).
2.2.4. Field "Telephone number" whe can write telephone number starting with "+" without brackets, minuses.
2.2.5. In field "Web Page" we should type web address of official page of company starting with "http://". Adding unofficial sites here is not allowed. Please remark You can add links to unofficial sites in the "other information" field, if they contain valuable, comprehensive information about the transportation system (e.g. fleet lists, history).
2.2.6. "Other Information" is supposed to add more details about operator like history.
2.3. Adding divisions, units, depots is not allowed. Vehicles should be added to main company / operator. We can describe assigment in "other information" under vehicle.
2.4. We should avoid needles adding operator. In case small changing of legal form of ownership (in case of private company for example) we do not need to create new operator. Just inform about it in "other information". If you have doubt what to do. Ask on forum.
2.5. Leasing is treaten like a "normal" ownership of company which is using vehicle. We can add info about it in "other information". That also applies to the following situation: if the vehicle is being operated by a sub-contractor or leased for a longer, permanent period, we enter the actual operator as the owner, even if the vehicle officially belongs to another company or a governmental authority. The "Rented" fields are intended mainly for short, temporary rents and tests.
2.6. Vehicle manufacturers exists here as a owners of demonstration buses only. Vehicles produced on order of operators we treat as property of these operators. In other way we would have a lot of solarises assigned to Solaris Bus company, volvos to Volvo bus company because every vehicle was in factory during production and it is needless information.
2.7. Vehicles of operators we do not know we should assign to operator "?" and name of the capital of the smallest administrative subdivision you can derive basing on the registration plates or other characteristics of the vehicle.
In some countries which do not distinguish subdivisions on their plates (e.g. Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania) you might probably need to assign the vehicle to the country's capital.

3. Vehicles
3.1. Before adding new vehicle record, please check if vehicle already exists in database. It can be done using function "search vehicle".
3.2. No presumptions or guesses allowed. You should not add information if you are not completely sure of it. Any unconfirmed information should be put in Other Information field.
3.3. Writing "xxx", "x", "?", "." as registration plates or vehicle numbers are not allowed.
3.4. In case if model of vehicle is unknown, it should be assigned to "Miscellaneous vehicles". Assigning vehicles to invalid models is forbidden.
3.5. If model name is not listed, ask it to be added on forums because only people with "Editor" privileges can do that. This is for avoiding mess in list of vehicles.
3.6. Vehicles which have different body and chassis (like Volvo, Scania, EAGs) should be described in field "Full name" as "Chassis manufacturer and model / Body manufacturer and model", for example "Volvo B12R / Alfabusz Regio". Please note that there are a lot of exceptions of this rule so please consult it on forum or look like similar vehicles are described.
3.7. In case there are more than one VIN numbers for the vehicle, body VIN number should be put into "VIN" field while others into "Other Information".
3.8. Name of vehicle is the name given by manufacturer. It doesn't matter if vehicle was rebuilt, shortened or modified by any other means. For example, if Ikarus 280 was rebuilt to Ikarus 260, it will still be Ikarus 280, according to our rules. Data about modernizations, rebuilds etc. or about any additional names used locally by the transportation companies can be added to the "other information" field, but the vehicle name must remain unchanged.
3.9. Service (non-passenger) vehicles like trucks and vans should be add to "Technical Equipment". Exceptions are rebuilt buses which should remain in original model, according to rule 3.8.
3.10. Vehicle trade names (like "Citaro", "Axer") should not be written in "Full name of vehicle" field. we do not use trade names of vehicles. Trade names are additional catchy names given by producers for advertisement purposes, but not used in official documents. For example bus called "Mercedes Citaro" should be described in "full name of vehicle" as "Mercedes O530". Sometimes we are making exceptions (for example Van Hool buses). Rough list of modelswhich we use trade names can be found on: http://forum.phototrans.eu/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2784&start=200#p47586 and before adding new vehicle look at existing entries for similar vehicles. If you still have doubts, please ask on our forum.
3.11. Vehicle can be deleted by changing its owner to Recycled Operator.
3.12. Scrap date. We fill the date in the "scrapped" field only if the vehicle has been physically destroyed. Except below:
  3.12a If the vehicle is officially written-off in the documents, but it still remains on the operator's property (even as a complete wreck), we consider that it is still owned by the operator and we do not enter any dates in the "scrapped" or "owned until" fields.
  3.12b. If the vehicle is not in service anymore and has been sold, but it still physically exists (e.g. as a storing shed in somebody's yard), write in "scrapped" field offical date of unregister vehicle and mark in other information that wreck exists.
3.13. The "full name of vehicle" edit field is used to specify the type of model. Please make changes only if it is uncorrect or inaccurate. Adding or removing a space or other characters is not allowed (for example, changing "O530G" into "O 530 G"). The unification of the signs is very necessary for efficient searching. If you think way of describing types is uncorrect in our database, please consult it on forum, do not change on your own.

4. Photos.
4.1. Vehicles rented should be described with number of owner.
4.2. Photos from factories should be assigned to future owners of vehicles.
4.3. In the beggining of description we should add place of taking photo like "City, Street name" regardless of the fact that the city's name is selected from the drop-down list. Exception is photo of details and interior of vehicles
4.4. It is forbidden to add photos with blurred or modified faces or registration plates in graphical programs.
4.5. On site we can publish photos of following vehicles:
4.5.1. mini, midi, maxi, mega class Buses (from 9 meters to unlimited length), trams, trolleys, subway - without limits
4.5.2. vans, buses based on trucks and small buses - only first photo of vehicle or information photo (has some interesting aspects)
4.5.3. trams and trolleys - without limits.
4.5.4. urban train systems - please consider if more accurate is rail part of phototrans.eu (rail.phototrans.eu). It is impossible to create a single, clear rule for distinguishing suburban tram, metro (subway) and urban rail systems; if you're not sure where the photo fits better, ask on the forum and/or consult lists of tram and subway systems on wikipedia or urbanrail.net.
4.6 We do not publish following type of transports:
4.6.1. Cable cars
4.6.2. Funiculars. Publish it on rail.phototrans.eu (exception is trams from Lisboa).
4.6.2. Tourist trains like tractors + trailers or supermarket toys. We do not publish at all.
4.6.3. cars without special equipment even it is used by transport company. Exception is first photo vehicle (just for information).

5. Tags
5.1. Tags are not obligatory
5.2. Tags are divided by semicolons without spaces.
5.3. Tags duplicating info from standard search like "registration number", "name of vehicle", "vehicle number" are forbidden.
5.4. Tags of unnumbered routes we should write in direction of going vehicle with space between and after minus (like: Warszawa - Radom)
5.5. Every user can invent and use own set of tags. You can promote it in thread "Tags" of phototrans.eu forum.