This article represents fuller version of the story first published in April.
Severe vehicle maintenance problems resulted in the revocation of the 20-vehicle O-Licence held by Heathfield, Devon-based Millmans Coaches Ltd, trading as Grey Cars, by Traffic Commissioner (TC) Kevin Rooney.
The TC also disqualified the operator’s Transport Manager (TM) Paul Hamlyn-White from acting as TM for one year and until he passes a fresh TM CPC examination.
Mr Rooney said that the company’s O-Licence was granted in August 2002 following the revocation of another licence held by the company. Its vehicles had incurred multiple prohibitions over recent years. In April 2021, it appeared at a preliminary hearing due to an adverse DVSA maintenance report.
The business had been deeply disturbed by the COVID-19 pandemic. That was no surprise, as it was almost entirely a home-to-school operation. Mr Rooney recorded undertakings in relation to finance and roller brake tests.
DVSA was caused to conduct a further investigation in August 2022 following three prohibitions issued to vehicles that had been presented for annual test. The outcome of the investigation was “unsatisfactory.” As well as the prohibitions issued at annual test, another vehicle had been issued with a prohibition in 2021 because its brake fluid reservoir was empty.
The MoT pass rate was 50% against a national average of 91%. It was said that Mr Hamlyn-White had been too busy to complete the inspection reports contemporaneously, and they had not been completed since March 2022.
Roller brake tests had not been conducted in line with the undertaking. A further two vehicles were issued with immediate prohibitions during the fleet check. The deficiencies were very similar to those that caused Mr Rooney to call the company to the preliminary hearing in 2021.
Director Diane Millman said that she had been in the business since 1991, but more in an administrative capacity. It was only after her husband’s death in May 2020 that she took on a wider role. She was attending an O-Licence training course the following week and had realised that her experience on the operational side was not as good as it could be.
The easier option might have been to close the business in 2020, but Mrs Millman felt an obligation towards her staff and towards Devon County Council. There was a real shortfall in service providers in the region.
The company had issues with attracting and retaining skilled technical staff. Mr Hamlyn-White took on the inspections. With hindsight, juggling the engineering and operational roles was too much for him and Mrs Millman should have brought in another TM.
Mr Hamlyn-White said that he had been a driver. He had worked alongside Mr Millman in the workshop. He had attended a three-day basic inspection course in 2015 and refreshed it over the previous days. He had not been able to get the bookings for the roller brake testing. Taking on the maintenance himself was “foolish” and “unwise” and it was now being contracted out.
Making the revocation and disqualification orders, Mr Rooney said that he considered that the root cause of the appalling state of the fleet was gross incompetence within the workshop. He was told that the problem was retaining suitably skilled technicians. That might well be true. There could be few competent technicians who would want the challenge of maintaining such an elderly fleet and being associated with the MoT and roadside performance of it.
One of the company’s vehicles was involved in a serious incident on 12 July 2022 when a diesel spillage caused a road to be closed and 100 metres of roadway to be resurfaced. The company failed to report the incident. As a result, no inspection of the subject vehicle took place.
The explanation given now, that an item on the road caused a fuel tank to be dislodged, was fanciful. A full fuel tank would weigh a significant amount. What could be thrown up from the road to dislodge it? It seemed more likely than not that the diesel spillage was caused, or contributed to, by a defective vehicle in that the fuel tank retaining straps were compromised.
The TC may have been swayed to allow a small, single-figure authorisation to continue, but Mrs Millman’s position was that any less than 16 vehicles was fatal to the business. Mr Rooney could not allow a 16-vehicle operation to continue. The risk was simply too great.
Every other vehicle inspected by DVSA while in service was so dangerous that an immediate prohibition was issued. While the processes and paperwork had been bolstered since the Vehicle Examiner’s intervention, little had changed in on-road performance.
How could it when the person in charge of the fleet had no relevant qualification and demonstrated a lack of even the most basic understanding of vehicle systems and the physics that lay behind them? This was an operation that, for the safety of schoolchildren in South Devon and other road users, must be brought to an end, the TC concluded.
