Wish Travel of Wigan has issued a compensation claim for loss of profits due to what it calls “unfair competition” from holders of Section 19 permits.
The claim is against the North West Traffic Commissioner’s Office and Wigan Council, and initially £5,000 is being sought.
The claim follows the award of commercial home-to-school contracts to holder of Section 19 permits.
Wish Travel Director Tony Riley says that the council failed to respond to Freedom of Information requests for details of how many contracts it awarded during the two years in question, and once the required information is received, the compensation figure may be modified upwards.
Mr Riley argues that both organisations “breached their duty of care” by failing to apply EC Regulation 1071/2009. He adds that the council’s application form “clearly encouraged” permit holders to bid.
Wish Travel says that it “applied for numerous contracts” that were awarded to permit holders. While Mr Riley accepts that he would not have won all of them, he alleges that he was denied some of the work because he was undercut by permit holders with an unfair advantage due to them operating under a lower-cost regulatory regime.
The Department for Transport has recently clarified that commercial contracts may only be awarded to permit holders when no bids are submitted by commercial operators.
