An operator who failed to return his transport manager questionnaire has been given three months to regain professional competence or face having his licence revoked.
David Michael Moore, who operates from Keighley and Leeds, appeared before North East regulator Kevin Rooney on 13 February in Leeds, where he was also challenged on his vehicle maintenance standards.
Mr Moore additionally gave evidence at the public inquiry in his capacity as CPC holder on the licence.
During the hearing, an examiner from the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) told Mr Rooney that the haulier had been visited as a result of a poor prohibition history and MoT failure rate.
In his report to the Traffic Commissioner, the VOSA officer identified shortcomings with the systems for maintaining vehicles in a roadworthy condition.
Mr Moore did not have a forward planning system in place for routine safety inspections, he found, while an examination of the PMI records revealed some vehicles were inspected beyond the agreed times.
Drivers were also recording some of their visual defect checks on a weekly basis, when daily reporting should have occurred.
In addition, some records did not show that defects were being repaired.
On reviewing the operator’s history, the Traffic Commissioner noted that one of his drivers had been prosecuted for four counts of exceeding 4.5 hours driving without the required break. These had been serious breaches. On a couple of occasions, the driver had completed an 8 hour shift without stopping for even 15 minutes.
He also saw that a total of 11 prohibitions had been issued to vehicles operating under the licence since June 2008. The operator had a 64% initial MoT test failure rate over the last five years.
Giving evidence to the Traffic Commissioner, Mr Moore admitted that he had not been carrying out some of the requirements of his operator licence, partly due to personal issues that were not related to the business.
After reviewing the representations made by the operator, the examiner’s evidence and correspondence issued in respect of the transport manager’s position, Mr Rooney made an order to curtail the sole trader’s licence.
The ruling means that Mr Moore will be restricted to operating eight vehicles with immediate effect. His licence was originally authorised for 21 vehicles, with 10 in operation.
Mr Rooney remarked: “Maintenance systems have been very poor resulting in prohibitions issued and MoT failures. At least one driver had committed very serious hours breaches. The operator told me he had systems in place to monitor drivers’ hours and tachographs but hadn’t spotted them in charts taken by VOSA as evidence.”
Two undertakings were recorded against the licence, committing Mr Moore to independent audits of maintenance procedures and drivers’ hours and working time systems.
The Traffic Commissioner also issued a warning to the operator if he failed to provide evidence of financial standing for the curtailed licence authority by 17:00 on 15 March.
Turning to transport manager position, the regulator disqualified Mr Moore from working in that capacity again until he had regained his professional competence by completing a minimum of two days on a CPC transport manager refresher course.
“I have made this decision as Mr Moore has had no refresher training since 1988. He was not aware of basic systems such as OCRS and seems not to have effective systems in place to ensure compliance,” Mr Rooney added.
The operator’s professional competence was affected by this direction and the Traffic Commissioner warned Mr Moore that his licence would be revoked if professional competence had not been satisfied by 17:00 17 May 2013.
He can either add a new transport manager to his licence or be nominated again himself, if his disqualification has been lifted by the deadline.
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