In cutting the O-Licence held by Cinderford-based school bus operator RJ Belfitt Mini Bus Hire from five to three vehicles, Traffic Commissioner (TC) Kevin Rooney made it conditional on Director Richard Belfitt stepping down and there being an independent audit of the company’s systems by the end of March 2020.
The TC warned that if those conditions were not met, the licence would be revoked.
In disqualifying Mr Belfitt from acting as a Transport Manager (TM) until he passes a further CPC exam, the TC gave the company a period of grace until Christmas Day to meet the professional competence requirement.
Compliance, maintenance and tachograph concerns
The company had been called before the TC because of concerns over finance, tachograph compliance and vehicle maintenance. The latter issues had become apparent following a previous Public Inquiry (PI) in March when the licence was cut to five vehicles.
Asked about shortcomings in an independent audit report, Mr Belfitt said that he had not followed the recommendation to register for the Operator Compliance Risk Score. Driving licence checks had been done in July.
All drivers had now completed their DCPCs. Since the last PI, Mr Belfitt had been checking the PMI sheets. The auditor had recommended that he take more time, but Mr Belfitt felt he already was.
He had spoken to drivers about effective walk-round checks of vehicles, but they were not documented. Drivers had been given ‘toolbox talks’ on walk-round checks after the audit.
RJ Belfitt Mini Bus Hire had come a long way since the last PI. Mr Belfitt had known nothing of a vehicle being used with the ABS warning light covered with tape. He was not carrying the can for that.
Director Stephen Belfitt said that the shortcomings found by the Vehicle Examiner were historic. They had come a long way since then. Recent inspections were all on time and there was proper brake testing.
The TC said that tachograph analysis indicated many occasions of records failing to be kept and, depending on the circumstances, they could be considered false records.
Use of VOR-marked vehicle ‘inexcusable’
The use of a vehicle marked VOR due to corrosion and a defective braking system on a school service was inexcusable. That the ‘excuse’ was that the TM has no knowledge of the use indicated that he did not have continuous and effective management of the transport operation.
Richard Belfitt had said that we would not “carry the can” for that. He was the TM. If he did not “carry the can” then who did? He had no knowledge of a vehicle being driven without a driver card in the tachograph unit on what was clearly an in-scope journey.
Stephen Belfitt removed a vehicle from the maintenance provider. He applied tape to cover the ABS malfunction indicator lamp and facilitated that dangerous vehicle being used on a school service. In the positive, he immediately accepted that gross error.
There was much still to do to get this business to a compliant level. A new TM should help. Meanwhile, the TC required Transport Consultant Clive Skinner to attend the company each week to supervise operations.
