In early October the Traffic Commissioners of Great Britain published their annual report.  The report encompasses the purpose of the individual Traffic Commissioners who are independent regulators for the goods vehicle and public service vehicle industries and their professional drivers.  Collectively the Traffic Commissioners act as a “non-departmental tribunal and licensing authority, sponsored by the Department for Transport”.  The report states that their mission is to “promote safe, fair, efficient and reliable passenger and goods transport through effective licensing and regulation of the commercial vehicle industries”

The report notes that the year 2023-2024 was the first year following the Covid-19 and government lockdowns that the industry has “returned to normal”.  The identifying theme arising from hearings is that road safety is thekey tenant for the Office of the Traffic Commissioner and a number of areas where highlighted where this aspect of running a transport operation was disregarded by some transport operations.

Driver and Transport Manager CPCs

The effectiveness of the CPC qualifications has been a “point of interest” for the Traffic Commissioners for a while now.  This has been brought into sharper focus this year with the consultation that the Department for Transport is running on changes that could be taken on the Driver CPC qualification.  The Traffic Commissioners put forward a viewpoint that the Transport Managers CPC qualification should also be subject to a review to ensure that it is still fit for purpose given the changes in the industry with new technology and differing ways of working.

The need to ensure that Transport Managers keep themselves up to speed on their duties was key to a number of cases that went before the Traffic Commissioners in the year.  Their report highlights two cases in the West of England that show some serious failings by Transport Mangers.  The first case is Mariusz Sliwinski who was both the Operator Licence holder, the Transport Manager and the Driver for his business.  The outcome of the tribunal saw him lose his good repute as a transport manager and being disqualified for 12 months.  The O licence was revoked immediately and Mr Sliwinski’s vocational entitlement was also revoked for a period of 12 months.  Mr Sliwinski attended the Public Inquiry unrepresented.

The second case involved a mini-bus operation, running a school to home transport business.  The Transport Manager lost his good repute and was disqualified from acting as a Transport Manger for at least one year and until he sits and passes the TM CPC again.

Who is in Control of The Drivers?

The report highlights the growing issue which the Traffic Commissioners have encountered during the reporting period of operators who are unable to properly control their drivers due to the way they chose to ‘engage” them.  The report cites the Upper Tribunal decision in the leading case of “Bridgestep Ltd” on the use of “self-employed” drivers under contract for their services and whether such contracts were consistent with the operator’s responsibilities under the Operator’s Licence and whether the transport manager had “continuous and effective management of transport operations” if it did not have the right to direct and control its drivers.

The widely reported case of “Enero Logistics Ltd” is also sighted as a case to highlight the issues associated with using agency drivers.  We wrote about this case back in January 2024.  Click here to read the article.  From the report it is clear that Traffic Commissioners remain concerned about the matter of fair competition across the industry which this case highlights.

What Hours are the Drivers Doing?

The TC’s report that they have seen an increasing number of cases regarding drivers’ hours this year.  These have ranged from cases of driving without using tachograph cards, altering tachograph records and using the card of another driver to avoid resting.  The report cites the case of J Max Transport Ltd that was heard by the West Midlands Traffic Commissioner.  The sole director, transport manager and driver Mr. Maxwell Nyamukapa was convicted of 20 offences of knowingly making a false record and 15 offences of failing to make a record in what the Traffic Commissioner called the “worst case he had ever presided over”.

Non-compliance with drivers’ hours is often the “tip of the iceberg” for a company that has systemic issues with its systems and processes.  In a case heard in the South East and Metropolitan traffic area, one of the operator’s drivers was found to be using two cards and avoiding rest breaks, further compliance checks then uncovered that an unauthorised operating centre was being used and a breach of trust by using vehicles registered to another company which had since been dissolved.  Not surprisingly the operator’s licence was revoked!

New Technologies

Turning to other areas the Traffic Commissioners for Great Britain Annual Report 2023-2024 looked at some of the new technologies that are on the horizon for the UK’s transport industry:

• Autonomous Vehicles:

The trials on these vehicles that have been undertaken in the UK are said to be proving to be successful and following a debate in the House of Lords the powers required for the Traffic Commissioners to have a potential future role in regulating such vehicles have been put in place.  The Automated Vehicles Bill will set the legal framework for the safe deployment of self-driving vehicles across Great Britain.  The Commissioners in step with the Department for Transport will continue to monitor developments and review how these vehicles should be regulated.

• Electric Vehicles

With the new Labour government, the push towards net-zero is gaining momentum and the report acknowledges that operators of fleets of both PSV and goods vehicles have “a critical role to play” in achieving that goal.  However, a recent study by the RAC Foundation which randomly reviewed “type 2 public charges” across the country found that the majority of these charges do not have adequate level of coverage for mobile phones, through which they are activated, to guarantee that they can be used!

To quote the Senior Traffic Commissioner; “the Annual Report seeks to provide an honest analysis of the challenges facing the Traffic Commissioner service” and one might add those operators in the transport industry who are facing difficult regulatory and trading conditions which may tempt some to cut corners.  The cases in the report underline the need to operate proper maintenance regimes and to ensure that Transport Managers and drivers are compliant with the regulations and hold up to date qualifications to help them do that.

If you would like some help to ensure that your transport operation is fully compliant with the regulations, or if you have been called to a public inquiry then call us now on 01279 818280 or click here to send an email and let our team of expert solicitors get you on the right road.  We are here to help.

© Richard Pelly, November 2024