01
Tail swing at the kerb
A 12-metre coach turning left swings its rear out over the lane it is leaving. The bollard, the parked car and the person on the kerb are behind the driver’s mirror. A camera on the offside is the only thing that saw it.
Coaches
Fleet cameras for coaches
Fifty passengers. Fifty claims.
When a coach is blamed for a collision it is not one claim. It is every seat on the coach, each with a name, a solicitor and an injury, plus the other vehicle. RECON puts a camera on every side the driver cannot see, tells you when one has stopped working, and gets you the footage before the first letter arrives.
One clip, or fifty versions of what happened.
MANTIS, Belfast. Sold through telematics providers and their resellers in the UK and Ireland.
Shaded areas are illustrative blind-spot regions, not measured sightlines for a specific coach. The image shows a left-hand-drive coach; on a UK coach the door and kerb side is the nearside. Camera coverage depends on configuration.
- 1
- collision
- 50+
- potential claimants
- 3 yrs
- for an injury claim to arrive
A 12-metre coach seats around 50. Every seat can claim; not every seat will. Three years is the usual time limit for bringing a personal injury claim in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, counted from the incident or from when the injury became known; in Ireland it is two years. MANTIS does not guarantee any claim outcome.
Where a coach gets into trouble
A 12-metre body, no rear window, and fifty people behind the driver
Of 1,602 road deaths in Great Britain in 2024, 45 were in collisions involving a bus or coach (DfT, Reported Road Casualties Great Britain 2024). The everyday exposure is different: low speed, tight space, and fifty people close to a very long vehicle.
02
The door side at the stop
Hotel forecourts, motorway services, coach parks. Lockers open, passengers crossing in front of the bumper, another operator wanting the same bay. The lowest speeds of the day and the highest number of people within two metres of the coach.
03
Inside the aisle
A car cuts in and the driver brakes hard. A passenger who was reaching into the overhead rack goes down. The injury claim arrives six weeks later and names your company, not the car. Interior footage shows what the driver was reacting to and who was out of their seat.
04
Three days from the depot
The tour leaves Tuesday and comes back Friday. If the rear camera stopped recording on Monday night, nobody finds out until the claim letter. MANTIS Health is built for exactly this: the coach tells you before it leaves the depot.
MANTIS Health
Cameras only protect you if they are working
Every camera system in the market is sold on the footage. Almost none of them tell you when a camera has stopped recording. MANTIS Health checks each camera and its recording on the coach and reports the ones that need attention, so the person planning tomorrow’s work can see it today.
Offline is not proof of camera failure, and a healthy report is not a guarantee that footage will be there when you need it. Monitoring tells you what to check; it does not replace checking.
How MANTIS Health works
Concept illustration. Fictional demo data.Coach 217
Checked 06:425 of 6 cameras recording
- FRONTRecording
- NEARSIDERecording
- OFFSIDERecording
- REARNo signal since 23:15
- DOORRecording
- INTERIORRecording
Departure 07:30. Check rear camera connector before release.
Parked
The coach is parked. The risk is not.
A hotel car park at 2am. Luggage lockers, an unattended door, forty windows of glass. A coach attracts damage a lorry never sees, and the driver finds it at 6 with a full passenger list waiting. RECON shows you who was there.
Luggage lockers
Opened, emptied, closed again. The door camera and nearside camera see who.
Glass, both sides
Forty windows is forty targets. Offside and nearside cameras cover the length of the coach.
Struck while parked
The vehicle that clipped the rear at 3am and left. The rear camera is the only witness.
Recording with the engine off depends on the power configuration you choose and on retention settings. Ask us what your configuration records overnight before you rely on it.
Camera coverage on a coach
Six angles on a 12-metre vehicle
Forward, nearside, offside, rear, door and interior. Each one covers a moment the driver’s mirror cannot.
A typical RECON coach configuration runs four to eight cameras: forward-facing, nearside and offside along the body, rear, the door, and an interior view of the aisle. The offside camera covers the tail swing. The door camera covers the boarding step and the lockers. The interior camera covers the moment a passenger claims they were thrown from their seat.
Which cameras, how many, and which AI detections run depend on the configuration you choose. Interior cameras are your decision: passenger signage, retention and who can view the footage are set by the operator, and they are worth agreeing in writing before the first install.
- FrontFollowing distance, the car that cut in, the light that was green
- NearsideBoarding, the step, the cyclist on the inside, pedestrians at the stop
- OffsideTail swing, lane changes, the overtaking vehicle
- RearReversing at the depot, the vehicle that ran into the back
- DoorWho boarded, when the door closed, the step at night
- InteriorThe aisle when the brakes went on, who was standing
Camera count, 360 degree views, night vision and AI detections depend on configuration. Assistance supports driver judgement; it does not replace it or guarantee prevention.
Prove what happened
The coach is in Cornwall. The claim is in your inbox.
You pull the clip from the Evidence Centre without waiting for the coach to come home.
RECON On Demand lets you request footage by vehicle, camera and time, review every angle with the telemetry underneath, and send a Claims Pack to your insurer or solicitor with the driver’s account alongside it.
- 1
Request
Vehicle, camera, date and time. From your desk, while the coach is on the road.
- 2
Review
Every angle side by side, with speed and braking data under the video.
- 3
Send
A Claims Pack your insurer, broker or solicitor can review, with the angles, the data and the driver’s account together.
What is available depends on recording, power, connectivity, retention settings and clip length. Retention of three to four months is possible on some configurations and is not universal. A Claims Pack helps the people deciding a claim see what happened; it does not guarantee a settlement, a premium, or how a court will treat the footage.
Regulation, plainly
What applies to a UK coach, and what RECON does about it
RECON is not a compliance product. These are the rules an operator lives with, and where the footage and the camera health data fit alongside them.
| Rule | What it requires | Where RECON fits |
|---|---|---|
| Drivers’ hours and tachographs | Assimilated EU rules apply to services on routes over 50km, and GB domestic rules apply to certain smaller vehicles and local services up to 50km. Both sit alongside the working time rules for bus and coach drivers. | RECON does not replace the tachograph or your compliance system. Camera evidence shows what was happening on the road at the point a fatigue question is raised. |
| Seat belts on coaches | Where seat belts are fitted, passengers aged 14 and over must wear them, and operators must tell passengers so. | Interior footage shows whether a passenger was seated and belted when the coach braked, which is usually the first question in an injury claim. |
| PSVAR, over 22 passengers | The Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations apply to local and scheduled services, rail replacement and fare-paying home-to-school work. Charter and tour work sits outside them. | Door and boarding-step cameras show how a ramp deployment or a wheelchair boarding actually went. MANTIS supplies camera equipment; it does not certify PSVAR compliance. |
Sources: GOV.UK guidance on drivers’ hours for passenger vehicles, seat belt law and the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations. Rules change and vary by service. Check the current position on GOV.UK and confirm your obligations with your own adviser.
Prevent
Prevention means the driver gets home too
A coach driver spends the day with 50 people behind them and a mirror that does not show the tail. In-cab prompts on the configurations that support them flag following distance and distraction as they happen, and the offside and rear cameras give the driver an angle they have never had.
Each driver has a Positive Risk Score out of 15 built from context, not from a count of harsh events. A harsh brake for a car cutting in is defensive driving and the footage shows it. Scores are for coaching conversations, with the footage and the driver’s account in the room. They do not decide employment, insurance or liability on their own.
Example scores on this page are fictional demo data. Which detections and prompts run depends on the configuration you choose.
Concept illustration. Fictional demo data.Positive Risk Score
Driver 41, last 30 days12out of 15
- Following distanceSteady
- Harsh braking2 events, both with a vehicle cutting in
- Distraction promptsNone
- Door-side low-speed events1 event, footage reviewed
MANTIS as a Service
One subscription. Hardware, software and a five-year warranty.
Hardware and software together
Cameras, recorder, RECON platform and updates in one monthly subscription per coach. No capital purchase, no separate software licence.
Unrestricted connectivity
Multi-network connectivity with uncapped data is included. The coach connects on whichever supported network is available where it is, from the Scottish Highlands to a motorway services in Kent.
Through your telematics provider
You buy RECON through the telematics provider or reseller you already work with. RECON integrates with Webfleet and Geotab, so the video sits beside the data you already have.
Manufacturer warranty replacement is free of charge subject to a paid RECON subscription and applicable warranty terms; installation is excluded. Confirm five-year coverage for your selected MANTIS as a Service package.
Uncapped data is subject to fair use policy. Network coverage, roaming, plan availability and retrieval performance vary by region and configuration.
Questions from coach operators
What operators ask before the first install
How many cameras does a coach need?
Most coach configurations run between four and eight cameras. Forward, rear, nearside and offside cover the outside of the vehicle. A door camera and an interior camera cover boarding and the aisle. Which of these you fit, and which AI detections run, depends on the configuration you choose. We will walk the vehicle with you before recommending one.
Can we put cameras inside the coach without upsetting passengers?
Yes, and many operators do. Interior cameras are your decision. You set the signage, the retention period and who can view footage, and you will need a lawful basis and a privacy notice under UK GDPR. Agree it in writing before the first install and make sure drivers and booking staff can point to it.
How quickly can we get footage after an incident on a tour?
You request it from the Evidence Centre by vehicle, camera and time, and the clip transfers over the coach’s connection while it is still on the road. How long that takes depends on where the coach is, which network is available, clip length and recording settings. MANTIS does not promise a fixed retrieval time.
What happens when a camera fails?
MANTIS Health reports it, usually before anyone on the coach notices. Manufacturer warranty replacement is free of charge subject to a paid RECON subscription and applicable warranty terms; installation is excluded. Confirm five-year coverage for your selected MANTIS as a Service package.
Does RECON replace our tachograph or telematics?
No. RECON is the camera and evidence layer. It integrates with Webfleet and Geotab, so drivers’ hours, location and vehicle data stay where they are and the video sits alongside. Tell us which platform you use and we will confirm what is supported.
How do we buy it?
Through the telematics provider or reseller you already work with, on a monthly MANTIS as a Service subscription per coach that covers hardware, software and a five-year warranty, subject to eligibility. Start with a fleet risk assessment and we will scope the configuration with you.
Get a fleet risk assessment
Tell us about the coaches
A 30-minute conversation about where your coaches operate, what your cameras do today, and what a claim currently costs you in time. No slide deck. We will come back with a configuration and a monthly figure per coach.
- UK and Ireland office
- MANTIS, Belfast
- How to buy
- Through your telematics provider or reseller in the UK and Ireland