West Midlands Traffic Commissioner (TC) Nick Denton has warned operators and transport managers to be aware of the requirements of vehicles using AdBlue.
It comes after Stoke-on-Trent firm Rapid Response Deliveries’ O-Licence was revoked, and its transport manager (TM) Michael Mansfield banned indefinitely, after two of its vehicles were found to be fitted with AdBlue emulators.
This enabled the firm to operate without using AdBlue. The vehicles had also been modified so that the dashboard warning light did not show.
The operator claimed the vehicles were like it when bought secondhand and claimed that it hadn’t noticed the AdBlue filler, nor that the vehicles were not using AdBlue for three years.
The firm was criticised for an “astonishing ignorance of basic operational issues” by everyone at the business.
Mr Denton added: “The need for AdBlue should have been self-evident to anyone who understood the business of operating and who had kept even a marginal acquaintance with the trade press over the last few years.”
The TC also heard that the firm’s drivers had committed numerous and repeated drivers’ hours offences, while the TM had failed to perform many of the duties he was required to do.
