Wolverhampton-based Travel Express, trading as Let’s Go and with a 20-vehicle O-Licence, has to wait to see what action Traffic Commissioner (TC) Nick Denton will take following a Birmingham Public Inquiry called because of concerns over vehicle maintenance and local service reliability.
In January 2015, TC Nick Jones disqualified Director Kishan Singh Chumber from acting as a Transport Manager (TM) until he passed a further CPC exam.
The company’s O-Licence was subsequently revoked. It was granted a fresh licence on the condition that Mr Chumber had nothing to do with vehicle maintenance, and that he employed a full-time TM and a skilled mechanic.
Travel Express sees ‘similar problems’ to before
The TC said that Mr Chumber had appeared before him in January. His repute was restored, and he became TM. The issues today were like the ones that resulted in the company’s O-Licence being revoked.
“I feel a bit like you have played me for a fool as I thought you would have learned your lesson after being disqualified as a TM and had your licence revoked,” Mr Denton added.
Seven prohibitions had been issued to the company’s vehicles in 2019. Three were given prohibitions in Wolverhampton bus station on 9 April. Two were for recut tyres exposing the cords and one was for a loss of air in an offside brake chamber.
Two further prohibitions were issued when three vehicles were inspected during a maintenance investigation in May.
Two of the company’s vehicles had been extensively damaged when they were involved in accidents in the same month, which were not immediately reported to DVSA. There was a very high annual test failure rate of 35%.
Mr Chumber said that brake diaphragms could fail at any time. There had been adequate rubber when the tyres were recut, but during service the rubber had split, exposing the cords in places. He accepted that the tyres had been cut too deeply.
The accidents had not been initially reported to DVSA because nobody had been injured.
Old tyres found to be in use
Mr Denton said that one of the vehicles was given a prohibition for a track rod defect that was not due to accident damage. Both vehicles were given advisory notices for tyres over 10 years old. It was a very old fleet without adequate brake testing.
Mr Chumber said that there were no tyres in the garage over 10 years old. He was replacing the entire fleet. He had bought 14 vehicles within the last six months with two more to come.
The newer vehicles were having their exhausts upgraded to meet Euro VI standards. He had been told that they would be able to come into service in January and February.
Traffic Examiner (TE) Austin Jones said that during a six-week period in June and July, he monitored 184 journeys. Overall 51% of them either did not operate or ran more than one minute early or five minutes late.
Driver issues experienced
There were a lot of driver behaviour issues resulting in early running. Three routes were also served by National Express West Midlands (NXWM) on a frequent basis.
Mr Jones agreed an improvement plan with Travel Express on 17 June. He barely saw any progress when he went back in September. There were also similar driver issues. One driver told him that he was instructed to run two minutes in front of NXWM.
Mr Chumber said it was totally false that he had instructed drivers to run ahead of National Express. He did not think that drivers were deliberately ignoring the timetable but were trying not to get in the way of NXWM.
At the moment he had not been able to find a solution to the problem. Several journeys were missed when three drivers were suddenly unavailable for various reasons. There had been no complaints from passengers.
Indicating that he would issue a written decision at a later date, the TC said that there either needed to be a massive improvement, or it was time “to pack it in.”
