You are missing the difference between legislation for professional activity and recreational activity which are very different although with people and society becoming more litigious the end results for those involved begin to coalesce.
Sensible regulation is what i suggested as needed. I am pretty sure the OP is competent and the risk duration low but how can isurers be certain.
I think Refuelers point is still valid. Overreliance on certification means people pass the exams and don't necessarily gain the required experience. In real the real world experience will always trump certification, but the lawyers and insurance companies will consider the certification more important.
Trouble is there doesn't seem to be any control over issuing pass certificates to some of the courses...OK in the UK one doesn't need any ticket for Private pleasure...but once you go comercial it's controlled....
Regulators and accident investigators are quite critical of vessel operators who accept bits of paper without a wider assessment of competence. I don't know how well that message has been absorbed by operators but I think its probably wrong to say lawyers and insurance companies will consider certification more important - they will robustly question why any minimum entry level compliance was not achieved, but that doesn't mean they are saying "its ok if he just passed yesterday, give him the keys and tell him to make sure the passengers come back having had fun". Imagine our attitudes if someone was driving a car with no license - but its ok because they've actually been driving for years on private roads / farm etc and built up more experience that someone who just past their test! or if someone was driving a bus without the bus liceense - but actually he's been driving big vans the same size for 30 years and so has load of experience - compared to someone at 21 who just passed their bus test!
I regularly travel in Geneva, Basel and Zurich. Most trips I've taken an Uber. I've never had an extra cost on my Vodafone bill, either before the EU rules meant roaming in Europe was no extra cost, during that time, or since the UK let the mobile companies shaft us again since the B word.
For the most serious of the commercially endorsable qualification the school and the examiner are not the same person. That's not true of PB2 - but limits you to 3 miles from a nominated departure point in good conditions. I doubt there's many people around with a Commercially Endorsed PB2 who couldn't pass an independent test if they wanted to - doesn't mean that that drive that way when nobody is watching. We don't have a huge issue with qualified buy clueless people causing accidents do we?
There was an old saying 'be wary of people with bits of paper' well in this neck of the woods there was...I can see your point, but when I went into sailing I needed a lot of sea miles before I could take my Yacht master, also people need sea miles before they can officially take pb2 . When I did my advanced power boat course around ten years ago I need lots of sea time before I could take the course including night passages.
Not for a very long time
A minibus license (class D1) is required to drive a vehicle that is capable of carrying more than 9 people (8 pax + driver). Pre-97 license holders may have that entitlement, but post 97 will not. I chose that as an example because there is a weird distinction about who/why you are driving, essentially there are exemptions from the rules if you are driving for a voluntary organisation and the people are not paying. Its irrelevant how many people are actually being carried - could be 6 - if you are driving that for a "commercial purpose" you need the right license. (full PSV required for >16 pax). So would you say "its OK you wont get caught; you could move a dozen boy scouts and that would be legal" to someone in their late 30's who doesn't have a D1 on their license and needs to do a short trip with half a dozen people in a minibus. The rules might seem, might even be, stupid but the consequences of getting caught are not insignificant.
There's no actual requirement for a signature - who would sign my logbook when I'm the skipper of my own boat! Examiners on here have said that they want to see a log of where / when / what etc - but it doesn't actually need signed, because they will ask people about the trips and soon know if they are bluffing. The signature is not saying anything other than you saw them do what it say - X hrs, Y miles, day/night, engine/sail - wind/conditions.
The change in 97 was to align across Europe. I assume that means that new drivers in Latvia can't drive a minibus without an extra test either. I don't know if they have the weird "voluntary work" exemption - that was I think a UK special case.
This is going quite off topic from the OP now, but still comes a bit back to the concept of certification and it's use.
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