The operator was found to have a high MOT failure rate, did not respect maintenance intervals and failed to take action against obvious defects
Homers Travel Ltd was the holder of a standard national PSV operator’s licence for three vehicles. The licence was granted in May 2018, and the sole director of the company was Mr Robert Gibson, who was also the nominated transport manager on the licence.
In 2019 the DVSA carried out a maintenance investigation into Homers Travel, with an unsatisfactory result. Shortcomings reported were safety inspection intervals not being respected; numerous driver detectable defects on safety inspection sheets; inspections being conducted on site, with inadequate inspection facilities; a 66% MOT failure rate; and a prohibition for a defective tyre.
Following that investigation, Mr Gibson gave DVSA various assurances at a Public Inquiry (PI) in 2019, including that he would do a walk round check with every driver to ensure they were doing defect checks correctly and would carry out spot checks of drivers in the future, and that he was in discussion with a couple of operators to see if he could put an agreement in place to use their facilities for the regular safety inspections.
[wlm_nonmember][…]
By subscribing you will benefit from:
- Operator & Supplier Profiles
- Face-to-Face Interviews
- Lastest News
- Test Drives and Reviews
- Legal Updates
- Route Focus
- Industry Insider Opinions
- Passenger Perspective
- Vehicle Launches
- and much more!
Both the 2019 public inquiry and the 2022 PI were heard by deputy Traffic Commissioner (TC) Nicholas Denton. In the 2019 case, after Mr Gibson had agreed to an undertaking to have vehicles roller brake tested at least every eight weeks (and had said that he had already added it to his maintenance schedule), the Deputy TC issued a warning and stressed that should further reports of non-compliance be received, the warning would be taken into account.
2022 investigation
In April 2022, the TC’s office received a report from DVSA vehicle examiner Austin Jones, who had carried out a further investigation into the company in February 2022 and again marked it unsatisfactory. Reasons given included that very few roller brake tests were being carried out, despite the undertaking that they would be done every eight weeks. Only one roller brake test record was available for each vehicle. Further reasons were: an MOT failure rate which was still high at 33%; and safety inspection intervals sometimes being extended beyond the stated four weeks and records thereof not being properly completed, including the condition of tyres not being recorded, mileages not being recorded, inspection dates frequently being amended, and the declaration of roadworthiness was not signed.
A vehicle had been involved in a collision on 3 January 2022 after its brakes had seized. The operator had failed to notify DVSA of this. The Deputy TC also noted that until recently, maintenance had continued to be carried out by a mobile mechanic, with inadequate inspection facilities, and driver defect reporting continued to be ineffective.
Public inquiry
As a result of the DVSA findings, the operator and transport manager were called to a public inquiry, which took place on 16 June 2022. Present were Robert Gibson (Director and Transport Manager), Gareth Hale (Director of EMH Truck & Bus Ltd, the operator’s new maintenance contractor) and DVSA vehicle examiner Austin Jones.
The operator had submitted vehicle and drivers’ hours records in advance of the hearing, from which the Deputy TC could see that vehicles had had only one further roller brake test since Vehicle Examiner (VE) Jones’ visit on 11 February, which took place on 8 June 2022. He noted that almost all safety inspection records contained numerous driver detectable defects, in other words ones which should have been picked up by drivers on their daily walk-round check and rectified straight away, such as an inoperable horn, an inoperable rear fog light and inoperable tail light. Citing numerous defects, the Deputy TC noted that in each case, the immediately preceding driver defect reports had failed to identify any of these issues.
The vast majority of tachograph charts provided showed that drivers were going straight to ‘Driving’ mode at the start of a shift, which the Deputy TC said showed that either they were carrying out walk-round checks while on a ‘break’ or not carrying out checks at all, which he believed to be more likely.
VE Jones had also submitted in advance evidence of a further S-marked prohibition on 28 May, for tyre tread worn away and cords exposed, and for a severely deteriorated steering linkage dust cover, even though the vehicles had had a safety inspection only three days before which should have picked up and addressed the faults.
Evidence
Mr Gibson told the inquiry that he had been having ‘a lot of hassle’ with his previous maintenance provider, who he said had proved to be unfit for the task. He accepted having taken his eye off the ball as far as the roller brake test undertaking was concerned, but said that since February 2022 he had engaged EMH Truck & Bus, which was much more satisfactory, apart from the S-marked prohibition, where it was suggested that an oil spill from the wheel hub might have covered up the worn tyre.
Asked why he had not arranged roller brake tests immediately after VE Jones’s visit on 11 February 2022, rather than waiting until 8 June 2022, Mr Gibson accepted that he had no real answer to this. He said that he had however been monitoring driver walk-round checks since February, but had not documented them.
It also became apparent that Mr Gibson did not really know how to generate missing mileage or driver infringement reports; the Deputy TC accepted that the analogue charts showed that drivers were not driving large mileages and were unlikely to be committing serious drivers’ hours breaches.
Mr Gibson stated that he had been unaware of the Section 20 duty to report collisions to DVSA, and that if his licence survived he would go on a Transport Manager’s CPC refresher course, would have roller brake tests carried out at the promised intervals and would arrange for an independent audit to be carried out after a suitable interval.
Findings
Having considered the evidence, Deputy TC Denton found that the operator lacked the required financial standing; that the operator’s vehicle has received prohibitions, including the immediate S-marked prohibition on 28 May three days after a safety inspection; that the operator has failed to honour its promise that vehicles would be given safety inspections every four weeks; that it had failed to fulfil its undertaking to ensure that drivers report defects in writing, with no discernible improvement despite the fact that evidence that drivers were skimping on checks was obvious; that the operator had failed to fulfil its undertakings to have roller brake tests carried out at least every eight weeks and to keep vehicles fit and serviceable; and that it had failed to comply with the duty to report to DVSA any happening which could affect the safety of passengers or other road users.
Looking at the evidence, the Deputy TC weighed the positives and negatives. On the negative side, he said, were the issues in the DVSA reports, summarised in his findings, and the wholly inadequate action taken by the operator since the DVSA visit to tackle issues such as ineffective or non-existent driver walk round checks and the lack of roller brake testing. On the positive side, he noted the move to a new maintenance provider which has more satisfactory premises than the mobile mechanic used previously, and the assurances for better performance in the future. But these assurances were devalued by the fact that DVSA received identical assurances in 2019, he noted, which turned out to be worthless.
Considering the ‘Priority Freight’ question of ‘how likely it is that the operator will comply in future?’ the Deputy TC concluded that given Mr Gibson assured DVSA in 2019 that he would be spot checking drivers to ensure that they carried out walk-round checks effectively, that he would be looking for more suitable maintenance premises (which was not done until 2022), and his undertaking that he would ensure that roller brake tests were carried out every eight weeks, and that these assurances and undertakings were not in the event fulfilled, he believed that the answer is ‘very unlikely.’ The likelihood was not improved by the parlous state of the operator’s finances, he noted.
Addressing the ‘Bryan Haulage’ question of whether the operator deserves to go out of business, the Deputy TC was drew the conclusion that it did. Mr Gibson has been given every chance to improve compliance, he said, but the picture remained one of chaotic and ineffective management, with unroadworthy vehicles being driven by drivers too lazy to carry out proper checks of their vehicles. ‘This is not an operator which should continue in business,’ he stated.
Repute
The Deputy TC also considered the the good repute of Mr Gibson as transport manager and reached the conclusion that the degree of neglect which he had shown meant that the loss of his good repute was inevitable. He had failed to carry out the duties and responsibilities of a transport manager to anything like the required standard, TC Denton found.
As a result of his findings, the operator’s licence was revoked with effect from 0001hrs on 23 July 2022.
The TC further concluded that Homers Travel and Director Robert Gibson should be disqualified under Section 28 of the Transport Act 1985 from holding or obtaining an operator’s licence in the future. He considered that a 12 month disqualification would suffice to bring home to Mr Gibson the message that undertakings and assurances given to the DVSA and the Traffic Commissioner cannot be treated with the insouciance and neglect which has been the case here.
Having removed Mr Gibson’s good repute as transport manager, the TC was obliged to disqualify him from acting as a transport manager on any operator licence, also for a period of 12 months.
[/wlm_ismember]
