TLC Travel has escaped with a formal warning after Traffic Commissioner (TC) Tim Blackmore accepted that the firm’s administration of its maintenance system had fallen down during a period of turbulence.
The Bradford-based operator, with a 60-vehicle national licence, had been called before the TC at a Leeds Public Inquiry.
For the company, Scott Bell said that it was accepted there had been paperwork issues, but it was not accepted that vehicles had been used when recorded as off the road. The business had been under a significant amount of pressure due to the absence of sole Director Patricia Lambert for a period.
Substantial changes had been made since the DVSA investigation. In regard to mileage not recorded on some of the inspection records, it was a common issue on the type of vehicle concerned that odometers did not always work. It was accepted that there was not a regular roller brake testing regime in place at the time of the DVSA investigation, but once the company’s new depot was open, vehicles would be roller brake tested at every inspection.
Ms Lambert said that she had started the company 17 years ago and it had grown steadily. There had been a couple of previous DVSA investigations which had been satisfactory. Regarding the report of missing records, a significant number of vehicles were on a rental arrangement and the rental company insisted that the inspection records were sent to them. The records were copied, and the originals sent off, but the copies were not put back into the vehicle files. There had been a case of one vehicle having two files. All the vehicles now had new files.
They’d had a problem when they lost a number of fitters and had difficulty in recruiting replacements at the end of 2016. As a result, things started to go wrong administratively in the garage. Perhaps a bit of complacency set in when she was not there. A very good fitter also had to be dismissed because of the theft of diesel.
She had since emphasised to staff that they must be DVSA inspection-ready at all times.
They had recruited a compliance officer towards the end of 2017. She thought that they could be in the new depot by the end of August. The intention was to have a full FTA systems audit by the end of July. Her daughter was to take the Transport Manger (TM) CPC examination and would replace her as one of the two transport managers on the licence.
TM John Barraclough said that in relation to the report that PMI intervals had been exceeded, he had been using the annual MoT test as an inspection thinking that it was ok at the time.
Issuing the warning, the TC said that the administration surrounding the maintenance system had lapsed. However, he was prepared to accept on this occasion that it was a temporary lapse and that things were on track for putting it right.
