In her foreward, written a few months before she retired, senior traffic commissioner Beverley Bell reiterated her complaints that the low fees charged for licence applications (less than £100 per year for an HGV) limit the organisation’s effectiveness.
She also repeated her view that the “law in many cases remains archaic, outdated and no longer fit for purpose” – particularly in PSV legislation.
In her overview of the market, she pointed out that there had been no significant changes in the number of commercial vehicles in the UK, the number of HGVs covered by operator licences, or the numbers and types of licences held by operators.
She did say that the average age of HGV drivers remains much older than the national average, which raises concerns of the lack of replacements. She also pointed out that slow recruitment is limiting employment of staff.
In the year there were 729 goods operator public enquiries, and 148 PSV ones, both declining from 2015/2016.
In his report, east of England commissioner Richard Turfitt (now senior traffic commissioner, following Bell’s retirement) complained that too many public inquiries have shown directors and senior managers content to leave compliance to drivers and fitters. “I would have hoped that it is a matter of common sense that if, having been given advice by a DVSA examiner, you failed to act on it, the licence is at risk at a subsequent PI. I am disabused of these hopes all too frequently.”
For Kevin Rooney, former North East England traffic commissioner, falsifications – in CPC declarations and tachographs – featured. He also advised that tacho download periods need to be risk-based. “In many cases, downloading weekly for driver cards and four-weekly for vehicle units is absolutely essential and must be linked to quick, thorough analysis, driver debriefing, retraining and ultimately effective disciplinary systems.”
Sarah Bell, London and South East England traffic commissioner, pointed out that there were uncomfortable parallels between the operator responsible for the Bath tipper accident that killed four – whose licence she revoked after the fact – and many operators’ attitudes to brake testing. She writes: “The reality is that a number of transport operations before me have no ‘better’ brake testing arrangements than were evident during the criminal proceedings. It is a cause for concern that there remain a number of operators still relying on road testing as the mainstay, with a roller brake test at MOT – even when there has been mechanical work undertaken on those brakes...Even where those attending the tribunal have read the Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness (2014), they settle on the minimum advice for roller brake testing of 4 times per year but fail to read on. The full advice is that in addition, there should be a roller brake test or at least a decelorometer test at every inspection.”
She also points out that, contrary to common belief, problems aren’t only found with restricted licence holders.
Nick Denton, traffic commissioner for the West Midlands, also reports that operators aren’t getting the message about safety and compliance. He writes: “Operators continue to come to my attention for much the same reasons as they have in the five years I have been a traffic commissioner:
- failure to ensure that drivers are carrying out proper defect checks on their vehicles before driving them, rather than literally just ticking the boxes
- failure to have their vehicles put through a safety inspection at the promised intervals
- failure to ensure that the maintainer carries out proper brake tests rather than just stamping on the brake pedal to see if the vehicle stops
- a lack of appreciation that regular prohibitions and MOT failures, rather than irritants to be filed and forgotten, are in fact a loud warning klaxon that something is wrong with the way in which vehicles are being maintained and looked after, and that something needs to be done
He also credited a DVSA investigation that brought to light a practice prevalent among some aggregates industry drivers of working double shifts, one day, one night, for different employers, using two different driver tachograph cards. While clearly this is excess of drivers’ hours rules, it has been difficult for the employers to detect. He adds: “DVLA now includes, in its online driver entitlement checking service, the number of the latest issue tachograph card, so that operators can check that this is the one being used and not some previous version which has supposedly been lost or stolen. I urge operators and transport managers to make use of this facility.”
Scotland traffic commissioner Joan Aitken recalled a case where she disqualified an individual operator for life: already disqualified, he used another company as a front to get a licence. She writes: “The redeeming feature of the case was that it was people within the haulage industry who signposted where to find him.”
She closed by mentioning that she participated in charity Transaid’s South Africa Cycling Challenge.
Finally, the new Welsh traffic commissioner Nick Jones described the set-up of the new office in Cardiff.