The revocation of the two-vehicle national O-Licence held by Dolphin Travel has been upheld by the Upper Tribunal
The revocation of the two vehicle national O-Licence held by Llangefni based Alan Woolley, trading as Dolphin Travel, and his indefinite disqualification from acting as a Transport Manager (TM) until he passes a fresh CPC exam by Deputy Traffic Commissioner (DTC) Miles Dorrington following his appearance at a second public inquiry (PI) within 18 months, has been upheld by the Upper Tribunal.
Mr Woolley appeared before then-Traffic Commissioner (TC) Nick Jones in August 2018 when he refused to grant him an additional vehicle.
In his decision the DTC said that Mr Woolley had since undertaken a TM’s two-day refresher course. Despite that, in June 2019 Vehicle Examiner (VE) Ruth Kyriacos found vehicle maintenance to be unsatisfactory, the issues being the same as at the previous PI. There had been a 100% failure rate at annual test. The paperwork was chaotic or confusing and there had been insufficient management control. Lessons had not been learnt since the last PI despite advice.
Dismissing Mr Woolley’s appeal, the Tribunal said that the compliance history was poor. Mr Woolley operated two vehicles yet despite a previous PI, undertakings given, a CPC refresher course, a second maintenance investigation with advice given and an audit, which raised more questions than it answered, Mr Woolley’s systems were not compliant. Brake testing was not taking place every four weeks; the MoT failure rate since the previous PI was 100%, and there was no basis to suggest that that percentage was in some way over-stated.
A safety critical procedure was not in place, which was wheel re-torqueing. It was not surprising in the circumstances that the VE was doubtful that Mr Woolley would be compliant in the future, even though he was capable of being so.
Once the DTC had determined that Mr Woolley had lost his repute as a TM, he was required to disqualify him and the period of 12 months was a reasonable and proportionate order to make. The DTC was also entitled to find that Mr Woolley should attend a further CPC refresher course before being considered as TM on any licence at the end of the disqualification period.
That was not only an order he was entitled to make but a sensible one, bearing in mind Mr Woolley’s failure to present as a compliant operator as at the date of the PI having attended a CPC refresher course, 10 months prior to the hearing.
