Being a carer cannot be seen as a primary occupation and so a standard O-Licence is required, the TC tells NE operator
Though revoking the one-vehicle restricted O-Licence held by Washington-based Michael Leonard, Traffic Commissioner (TC) Tim Blackmore delayed the date to 9 March to give Mr Leonard time to consider whether to apply for a national O-Licence.
Mr Leonard has been called before the TC at a Leeds Public Inquiry. At the outset, the TC said that had been because of an unannounced maintenance investigation. The maintenance side was largely sorted. However, a change of maintenance contractor had not been notified.
Drivers’ hours were an issue. Mr Leonard had been trying to utilise his minibus for private use as well without recording it.
Regarding finance, Mr Leonard was relying upon a joint account with his wife. The running of the minibus had to be proven to be a secondary occupation. Mr Leonard had not provided any evidence of a primary occupation.
Mr Leonard said that he had always considered caring for his wife as his primary occupation. He now had a private car. Mr Leonard would be 66 in July and he wanted to run the minibus until he got his pension.
The TC said that a statutory declaration would solve the financial problem.
The Upper Tribunal had ruled that being a carer could not be regarded as being a restricted O-Licence holder’s main occupation.
Therefore, as Mr Leonard could not meet the main occupation criteria, his licence must come to an end. The only way forward would be to apply for a national licence, but he would need to employ a Transport Manager (TM).
The other problem was that the financial requirement for a national O-Licence was much higher.
After Mr Leonard had said that he knew someone who would act as TM, Mr Blackmore said he was being quite generous in delaying the revocation of the licence to give Mr Leonard time to decide what he wanted to do.
If there was a successful application, he would require an independent audit of Mr Leonard’s systems within six months.
“Hopefully I’ve given you a road map of the way ahead,” the TC told Mr Leonard.
