Problems with drivers' hours and tachos, plus TM's lies, to blame for revocation
Rashad Mahmood, trading as AJK Travel, has had his O-Licence revoked and been disqualified from holding an O-Licence for 12 months, and his Transport Manager (TM) Mohammed Ikahlaq has been disqualified from acting as a TM for three years.
It follows drivers' hours and tachograph offences, and operating more vehicles than authorised.
Mr Mahmood, of Bentley Lane Industrial Park, Bentley Lane, Walsall, with a seven-vehicle international licence, appeared before Traffic Commissioner (TC) Nick Denton.
Asked why a vehicle was seen twice using expired licence discs, Mr Mahmood said that it was probably driver error. The TC commented that when the vehicle was checked in July 2016 at Drayton Manor it was displaying a disc that had expired on 30 September 2013.
Mr Ikahlaq said that the vehicle seen by the Traffic Examiner (TE) in the yard in August 2016 with an expired disc was not in use. Some vehicles not in use still had discs that expired in 2006.
It had been a mistake. They had never operated more vehicles than they were allowed. All the expired discs had now been destroyed. He agreed that when he told the TE in August that Mr Mahmood was ill and abroad, it was untrue.
Mr Mahmood accepted that he had not been supervising his TM who had been running things. He agreed he had allowed a driver to use a minibus for private use, saying he did not know whether he had been carrying passengers or not.
TE Tracy Love said that the tachograph records were indicative of business use rather than personal use.
Mr Ikahlaq agreed the driver had not been using his driver card. Asked about an instance when a vehicle had been driven on a four-day tour without a driver card being used, he said the driver concerned had mistakenly used his expired card and not the new one.
After the TC had said that there appeared to be Fastline vehicles in AJK Travel livery, Mr Mahmood said they had had vehicles on lease from Fastline. They handed the last one back a few weeks ago.
Making the revocation and disqualification orders, the TC said that Mr Mahmood did not seem that interested in managing his licence properly or be particularly concerned by the shortcomings found, certainly not concerned enough to investigate them himself. He had no confidence that he possessed the drive and determination necessary to turn things around.
Mr Mahmood’s failures appeared to stem from incompetence, dilatoriness and lack of interest in what was going on, rather than a deliberate attempt to circumvent the law.
Mr Ikahlaq lied to the TE on at least two occasions regarding Mr Mahmood’s whereabouts. He had knowingly used at least three expired discs, in one instance simply replacing a seized expired disc with another expired disc. He also attempted to mislead him at the Public Inquiry when he told him that the driver whose tachograph card had expired had mistakenly taken the old card on tour rather than his new one. The reality was that the new one was applied for late and could not have been received by the date the tour started.
