With the start of digital-only O-Licence applications this month, bring to an end paper applications, the Traffic Commissioners (TCs) are clamping down on operators whose businesses have faced financial difficulty, but failed to tell the TC.
A new link between Companies House and the O-Licencing now automatically identifies dissolved companies, as well as those in liquidation.
Changes to a company’s status are shared with the Office of the Traffic Commissioner, prompting regulatory intervention.
In the last six months, 750 limited companies holding passenger or goods O-Licences have been identified as dissolved or in liquidation.
Revocation is already underway for 600 of these cases, with the remaining licences being reviewed.
In the guidance on legal entities, the Senior TC says: “It is a condition of a standard licence for operators to inform the TC with 28 days of any change in the name or legal form of the undertaking and the address of establishment.”
