Complete ignorance of rules leads to revocation and disqualification
The Traffic Commissioner reports are always an interesting read as well as giving additional knowledge to reinforce your compliance actions.
We always advise drivers and operators that the MOT standard is the lowest acceptable standard in your maintenance system. If there is an MOT failure then something is wrong in your maintenance system and it needs looking at.
In a situation like this it is so important for a company to get help and to sort out problems if they cannot do them internally, as it can mean a business ending and that has effects on the lives of all those involved with the business.
The other thing is that often when standards are not to the required levels, there is a lack of understanding about health and safety and consequence. Teaching possible consequences of their actions often leads to a realisation that things have to change and then acceptance of what needs to happen to make them compliant.
Here is a section of the latest Traffic Commissioners report on an operator that kept failing MOT’s…
Operator’s response to DVSA visit was “feeble in the extreme”
A wholesaler who sent vehicles for MOT to find out what defects they had is facing a year’s disqualification from operating.
Traffic Commissioner Nick Denton said the firm’s director failed to take any interest in vehicle and driver compliance throughout the time his company held the licence.
In fact, he wasn’t even aware of the very high annual test history failure rate for his vehicles.
Unsafe vehicles
The business ran an unsafe vehicle for several years which was driven by an employee who regularly failed to take the required weekly rest.
DVSA found lots of issues during its investigation, including out of date inspection sheets, a lack of brake testing, two prohibition clearance failures (for brake defects), incomplete driver defect reporting and the use of a vehicle with an obviously faulty tachograph.
No improvement
The company failed to show it had made any improvements at a public inquiry before Mr Denton.
He said the director hadn’t made the slightest effort to understand what was involved in running a HGV.
He revoked the operator’s licence and disqualified the company and its director for 12 months.
If you need help with your compliance or any aspect of your operator licence contact us at info@totalcompliance.co.uk or use the contact page on our website, we can help you to remain compliant with all your operations.