Confederation of Passenger Transport Operations Director Keith McNally on the review of the role of Traffic Commissioners
Traffic Commissioners (TCs) are the familiar and highly regarded regulators of the coach and bus sector. As someone with over 30 years’ experience in the industry, I was intrigued to see what the Department for Transport’s (DfT’s) recent review of the TC function’s health, effectiveness, relevance, and governance arrangements, would tell us.
Like other leading trade bodies, the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) took part in the TC function review consultation back in 2021. Our view is that the TCs perform an important independent gatekeeper function. With a good knowledge of the sector, they are also well placed to assess O-licence applications, as well as conduct Public Inquiries and hearings. Overall, TCs deliver a good service for our members, but we highlighted the constraints arising from under-resourcing.
In fact, all stakeholders who took part in the consultation recognised that TCs carry out an important and effective role for DfT. There was also widespread agreement on the need for fee reform.
In summary, the report concludes that substantial improvements to the TC function would require legislative change. It also stated that further efficiencies need to be driven through changes to governance and more collaborative working between DfT, DVSA and the TCs.
Does this mean that we’ll be seeing significant change to the TC function? As always, the devil is the detail. Having reviewed the report, here are some of the recommendations I found the most interesting.
Firstly, the report recommends moving from eight independent tribunals to one. Secondly, it proposes that the TCs would be allowed to make tribunal rules, including cost orders around who pays for the legal bill. These changes are to make tribunals more effective and efficient, as well as bringing the function in line with other tribunal jurisdictions.
Thirdly, there would be major change at the top with a new statutory President role, replacing the Senior TC. There would also be a dedicated senior Chief Operating Officer managing staff and engaging with stakeholders. Other governance changes would see a new decision-making body within the TC function. The aim of these changes would be to make the organisation less complex, strengthen governance structures, clarify lines of accountability, and ensure improved policy change and integration of work within the function.
Another interesting recommendation is that consideration should be given to whether the ‘Traffic Commissioner’ name is appropriate. The aim of any name change for the TC function is to better reflect what the role entails, increase public understanding of the function and more clearly demonstrate its judicial nature.
The report further recognised that TCs are not representative of the communities they serve. With three out of the eight TCs women and no ethnic minority representation, there’s clearly more work to do in making TCs fully representative of today’s society and the sectors they regulate.
There is also mention of DfT providing extra resource to create a new sponsorship function. This is designed to create better policy alignment between central government and the front line to deliver more for service users.
To make all these changes, you could reasonably expect an increase in the cost of a PSV O-Licence. I’m sure the industry would agree that if there are price rises to fund these roles, they would want a better service in return. However, it is widely accepted that the current flat-fee structure (regardless of fleet size) is unsustainable.
Many of the recommendations are classified as ‘longer term’ and in the remaining months we have left until the next General Election, I doubt we will see any legislative changes made to the TC function. What we do know from the report is that DfT has started work on an implementation plan and a timetable to take forward the review’s recommendations.
Here at CPT, we will continue to monitor any developments on behalf of our members.
