The wrongful use of a historic vehicle to carry schoolchildren with the wrong MoT, said to result from a misunderstanding of the rules, has led to the licence held by Colwyn Bay-based Vicky’s Coaches being cut from four vehicles to three for a month.
Simon and Victoria Alexander, trading as Vicky’s Coaches, had been called before Traffic Commissioner (TC) Nick Jones at a Welshpool Public Inquiry.
Traffic Examiner (TE) Sarah O’Brien reported that last December a 38-seater coach was checked at Llandudno.
There was no O-Licence disc displayed in the window although the coach bore Vicky’s Coaches livery. There was also no PSV test for the vehicle, no COIF and no legal lettering.
The driver, Victoria Alexander, claimed that the vehicle was not being used for hire or reward.
When questioned about the journey to Llandudno, she said that she had collected children from a school to take them to the theatre, again claiming that it was not a private hire trip and that the school were not paying for the use of the vehicle.
After being told the school would be contacted, Mrs Alexander explained that a coach had been booked by the school; however, there were more children than could be carried so she was using this coach to transport the excess number of children. The school were paying for the first coach but were not being charged for the second.
As the coach was part of the same booking and therefore was part of the hire by the school, it fell within the requirements to have a PSV O-Licence. Mrs Alexander said that it was purely a misunderstanding of the rules and regulations. They had to transport the extra children and it wouldn’t happen again in the future.
A check of the firm’s tachograph records showed that positioning journeys were not being recorded.
Prior to January 2018 Mr Alexander admitted to just giving the tachograph records a cursory glance before storing them. The TE agreed that it was a family business trying to do things right.
The TC pointed out that if a vehicle with the wrong class of MoT was used, the operator faced licence revocation unless that would be disproportionate.
For the firm, Tim Culpin said that there was an application for a sole trader licence by Mrs Alexander to undertake international tours.
The coach in the Llandudno incident was a historic vehicle that should not have been used in those circumstances. The firm had not exceeded the authorisation on their licence. The vehicle had a Class 5 test and the use of that vehicle had not given rise to any road safety issues – there being no mechanical defects.
Mr Alexander said that the tachograph charts were now being analysed by an outside agency and they were upgrading to digital tachographs.
The TC indicated that he would be happy to grant Mrs Alexander’s licence application on an undertaking that the partnership licence be surrendered.
