Key Issues from Public Inquiry

Total Compliance looks at the news and updates all the time to keep up to date with the industry changes and recommendations.

Every week traffic commissioners hold public inquiries into a variety of issues.

Some of these are for new applications for operator licences, applications for changes to operator licences, or to look at issues with operators, transport managers or drivers.

For operators who are compliant, like most are, it’s important to see what action traffic commissioners take to make sure there’s fair competition in the industry.

But these cases also offer guidance on staying compliant.

Below are the first couple of issues raised recently during Public Inquiry and so it is important for everyone to stay in the loop with information being sent out.

Downloading vehicle units and driver cards

• Decide what period is adequate within the maximum
• Take a risk based approach
• Consider factors that might increase risk, such as drivers who are away from base, drivers on tight schedules and drivers with a history of offences
• When the period for driver cards is exceeded there’s a chance data will be overwritten

Driver defect reporting

• Pay close attention to tachograph records which start with immediate driving. They’re showing you drivers who don’t do walk round checks or record them properly. It means the records are incomplete
• Professional drivers should be in the habit of putting their card in the slot immediately and selecting “other work”
• It should be automatic – failing to put the card in the slot could be a deliberate act
• Some drivers seek to hide a bit of driving, or other work, at the start of the day in case there are problems later

Keeping on top of everything may seem like hard work, but it is so much easier to do this as you go along and keep yourself compliant to avoid issues.  We have found that doing compliance visits has been assisting operators on a monthly basis and take away the stress, and so we speak only from experience.

If you are looking for ways to keep yourself compliant in a cost effective way, contact us to find out more at info@totalcompliance.co.uk

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