The three-vehicle national O-Licence held by Leighton Buzzard-based London Vintage Transport Ltd has been suspended for five weeks by Traffic Commissioner (TC) Richard Turfitt to make it clear to the company that there could not be an be an amateurish approach to compliance.
The TC said that there was no Transport Manager (TM) currently on the licence. His impression of the operation was not of professionalism, but
that of a hobby, where systems were applied as and when there was time away from other work commitments.
Regardless of their passion for vintage buses, Directors Steve Hickin and Rob McElwee must ensure that the operation complied with the same basic requirements that applied to every operator.
Mr Hickin accepted that he had not always carried out the role of a director. He said he had decided to now commit himself to those duties. In 2025 he would be allowed a six-month sabbatical from his employment elsewhere and then he would be able to work flexibly. In the meantime, Mr McElwee lived and worked abroad. They communicated via WhatsApp and the occasional conversation.
The TC said he was satisfied that the company had failed to keep its vehicles in a fit and serviceable condition, to employ an effective written driver defect reporting system, and to retain complete maintenance records. Prohibition notices had been issued. There had been a repeated failure to notify changes of intent, which meant that he was misled by the company and former TM Mark Cutler that there was full compliance until suggested otherwise. The failure to sort out the operation was not encouraging. Too much was done remotely or on an ad hoc basis because of the sporadic nature of the operation.
The late intervention by transport consultant Ian Chennell offered the prospect of policies which might be adopted, but there was little clarity as to how or by whom this might be managed.
He required undertakings that all regular drivers would be made employees and then subject to PAYE and National Insurance contributions and that a director would attend in person or virtually a one-day course of O-Licence Awareness Training, to be complied with.
Allowing a period of grace to obtain a new TM, TC Turfitt said that a TC must accept a Certificate of Professional Competence holder. In this case they would be expected to demonstrate how they would achieve compliance given the challenges identified. Whether the licence survived the suspension period would depend on an extension to the period of grace.
