In cutting the licence held by Smethwick-based Thandi Coaches by seven vehicles for three weeks, Traffic Commissioner (TC) Nick Denton described it as “a shot across the company’s bows”.
The firm, with a 22-vehicle international licence, had been called before the TC at a Birmingham Public Inquiry after five of its drivers were found to have driven various distances without a card in their digital tachographs.
The TC was also considering action against the one-vehicle international HGV licence held by Solihull-based Citywise Logistics, whose sole Director Vajshi Ranavaya was Thandi Coaches Transport Manager (TM).
Traffic Examiner (TE) Tracy Love said that the company’s tachograph analysis, using an outside agency, had left a lot to be desired. Nobody was targeting the driver cards. It should have been done by the TM, but he had not even been recording his TM duties as other work when driving his own HGV.
Sole Director Sukhi Singh Thandi, who should have ensured it was done, and his twin brother Ajmar Singh Thandi, who ran Thandi Transport which operated service buses, were both very enthusiastic. However, they had been in the game for some time. They had become complacent and training had fallen by the wayside. She accepted that the new system in place provided missing mileage reports.
Sukhi Thandi said that they worked on a 13-hour spread over and if anything was over 13 hours, two drivers were put on. All the drivers got job sheets in hand, so if they thought there was a problem they could raise it. Digital tachographs were now used on school runs and the driver cards were downloaded every 24 hours, using radios direct to his laptop. Units were downloaded every month.
The TC said that as with so many operators there had been a failure to match up driver card data with unit data. That was one of the drivers’ hours checking tasks to be done by a TM.
For the company, Jim Marsh said that what they had thought was being done by the analysis bureau was not as there were no missing mileage reports.
The TC said that the drivers had been abusing the system and that should have been picked up and nipped in the bud. Apart from that it appeared to be a well-run operation.
Giving Vajshi Ranavaya a warning, the TC said that he had not done what he would have expected of a TM, but he had not been alone in not realising that.
After Mr Ranavaya had said that he did not have a vehicle specified on his HGV O-Licence and that he hired in only very rarely, the TC pointed out that a holder of an O-Licence was required to have a vehicle available at all times. However, he was prepared to be flexible and Mr Ranavaya agreed to either specify a vehicle on the licence by January or surrender it.
