Daniel Craggs, who was connected with three entities whose PSV O-Licences had been revoked, and who had been disqualified from holding an O-Licence for 18 months in September 2012, has succeeded in his bid to re-enter the industry.
Mr Craggs, trading as Danny’s Travel in County Durham, had sought a new one-vehicle international licence before Traffic Commissioner (TC) Tim Blackmore.
Mr Craggs had been a partner with Trevor Cooper, trading as First Choice Travel, and a Director of First Choice Travel (Stanley) Ltd and Tyneside Travel (2007) Ltd – all of which had their PSV O-Licences revoked.
The TC said that he needed to be satisfied he could trust Mr Craggs with a licence again and that he whole thing was about trust. Mr Craggs had broken that trust in a bad way in 2012 by loaning licence discs to an unlawful operator.
Mr Craggs said that he had got tied up with the wrong people at the time and that it had been a massive mistake. They had got away with certain things and he was made the scapegoat. He was still hands-on in the industry and was currently looking after a depot in Consett. He also did some school-work driving. He had thought he would give it a go again. All he wanted to do was run one or two vehicles. He might go abroad again but that was not in the plan at the moment.
The TC commented that it might be better to have a national licence first and see how that ran before upgrading to an international licence.
Nominated Transport Manager (TM) William Campbell – one of the Directors and TMs of Newcastle upon Tyne-based L&B Travel – said that he had suggested Mr Craggs apply for an international licence as he had an international CPC qualification.
The arrangement was that he would be at Mr Cragg’s operating centre one day a week. He would keep all the records at L&B’s operating centre. He was not there to be Mr Cragg’s friend but there to ensure things were done right. If it fell down it would affect L&B’s own operation, which was going really well. They had just put in an application for an extra two licence discs.
Granting the licence, the TC said that Mr Craggs had a chance, but he would only get one chance from him and this was it. He thought that Mr Craggs was serious about it and the past was the past. He should take advice from his TM and the transport consultant he was employing.
