Stanley-based G & P Johnson, trading as Nightingale Coaches, escaped with a formal warning after operating Nexus contracts without authority over the Christmas period in 2016 following a Leeds Public Inquiry.
The company, with a 20-vehicle national licence, had been called before Traffic Commissioner (TC) Tim Blackmore.
Director and Transport Manager Barry Johnson said that the Nexus contracts were school “welcome” services running for 20-30 minutes in the morning and occasionally in the afternoon.
On 16 December, Nexus emailed saying they wished to alter the timetable on two services and to cancel another, which was just before they closed down for Christmas. The variation applications were dated 4 January and he did not know why they were not sent off immediately.
On 11 January Nexus asked for a new service starting on 15 January. He could not explain why all the variations were sent together in the same envelope. The only reason they were sent late was the Christmas break. It was the Office Manager’s responsibility to send the applications in – part of his role was liaison and co-operation with Nexus. The applications were in fact sent by normal post by another member of office staff, instead of sending them by guaranteed next day delivery.
He accepted things had gone wrong and that he should not have allowed the variations to start. Nexus would have informed the schools of the changes when the company had received the email. Consequently, the children would have been left without services if they had not put the changes into effect. The procedure now was to make sure variation applications were sent straight away and then it was checked that the TC’s Office had received them.
On 12 October this year, Nexus contacted the firm asking for an earlier finish on a service with effect from 16 October. It was told that that could not happen. As a result, Nexus pushed the date back to 31 October to enable a short notice application to be made.
After the TC had asked whether it was fair to say that everybody at the company was a bit “Christmas happy” at the time, Mr Johnson replied possibly. He said that the other office staff member now knew that variation applications had to be posted with guaranteed next day delivery. He agreed that it was possible that the variation applications had been left in a tray over Christmas.
The TC commented that Nexus should know better than to put pressure on its contractors. Nexus must know the system as well as the operators did.
In his decision, the TC said that a combination of factors had created the situation. At the time there was no proper system in place but that had now been put right and it had been demonstrated that the new system was working. He was pleased to see that the company was now holding its own with Nexus.
