Vehicle maintenance problems and a failure to comply with an undertaking in 2020 that the company would recruit and appoint a suitably experienced and qualified TM who would be employed on a full-time basis and paid at a commercial rate and in any event “no less than £35,000-40,000 per annum” has resulted in the O-Licence held by Bridgend-based Peyton Travel Ltd being cut from 26 vehicles to one for a period of 16 days by TC Victoria Davies.
Holding that the company no longer met the requirement of financial standing, she granted it a three-month period of grace to demonstrate that it met the requirement by showing that it has access to an average of £120,500 over a period of three months.
The company had appeared at previous Public Inquiries (PIs) in 2018, 2019, and 2020 leading to a reduction in the number of authorised O-Licence discs.
The TC said that in March 2023, the Directors’ daughter, Peyton Spallek, was nominated and accepted as an additional TM on the licence, alongside Michelle Wood.
Ms Wood had been accepted onto the licence as suitably experienced and qualified. However, she was subsequently removed from the licence in October or November of 2023, leaving only Ms Spallek as TM.
This was her very first role as a TM and, in her evidence, she admitted that she had no experience of vehicle maintenance, was “still learning” and was not paid a salary anywhere near £35,000-40,000 per annum.
Operating without a suitably experienced and qualified TM from October/November 2023 until the PI was a deliberate act that gave the company a clear commercial advantage and compromised road safety.
The Directors’ daughter, Ms Spallek, quite evidently did not meet the criteria in the bespoke undertaking attached to the licence at the most recent PI in September 2020.
It was undisputed that the company had been issued with prohibition notices by DVSA in the past five years, including ‘S’ marked prohibitions. The company’s MoT pass rate was better than the national average, and Ms Davies noted how there were nine clear pass results between the date of the DVSA report and the reconvened PI hearing.
The TC had considered the situation now, and the evidence put forward in that regard. It was clear that the company had taken appropriate action in response to the DVSA investigation and the PI. There was evidence that effective changes had been made to address the maintenance failings by the time of the first PI hearing, particularly as regards tyre management and training in driver daily walk-round checks. Ms Spallek did not intend to continue as TM when she returned from maternity leave and a new TM, Mr Hier, was proposed for nomination. He would be employed full time on a salary of £40,000 per annum. The company now recognised that it must adhere strictly to the terms of the undertaking on its licence in that regard.
TC Davies considered that a short period of significant curtailment was proportionate in the circumstances.
As to Ms Spallek, the failures occurred on her watch. However, the TC accepted that Ms Spallek was inexperienced and possibly out of her depth, particularly following the departure of Ms Wood. She failed continuously and effectively to manage the transport operations and arrangements were now in place for an experienced TM to take over.
In all the circumstances, Ms Davies considered that Ms Spallek’s repute as TM was retained, albeit tarnished.
