All Travel Minibuses lost its O-licence as a result of maintenance and compliance failings identified after a wheel loss incident
Operator Safir Shafi, trading as Alltravelminibuses, held a standard international PSV operator’s licence, granted in March 2020 and authorising two vehicles. He was also the nominated transport manager on the licence.
He had previously held a restricted PSV licence, granted in 2008 and called to a public inquiry in 2015 after having been issued with a fixed penalty for tachograph offences, though no regulatory action was taken on that occasion. In 2017 Mr Shafi was again called to a public inquiry (PI) after a DVSA visit found minimal maintenance records and driver defect reports, no forward planner, and no evidence of any brake checks. He had also received further fixed penalties for tachograph offences.
The operator supplied no financial evidence and no evidence of maintenance or other compliance at that inquiry, and the Traffic Commissioner (TC) revoked Mr Shafi’s operator’s licence with immediate effect, commenting that “the operator is not capable of managing compliance under the operating licence and has repeatedly failed to take appropriate steps despite the previous intervention of the deputy traffic commissioner and then subsequently by [the DVSA] vehicle examiner and traffic examiner. Even at date of the public inquiry he was ill-equipped.”
In April 2021, the DVSA carried out a desk-based assessment of the maintenance compliance systems of Mr Shafi’s current licence and found a number of shortcomings. There was no evidence of meaningful brake testing, of wheel removal procedure or torque register, or of a vehicle off-road (VOR) recording system, and some preventative maintenance inspection (PMI) sheets had not been signed off as roadworthy.
[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!
Mr Shafi offered assurances of better performance, including keeping a register of wheel changes, but the TC found that no further action appeared to have been taken.
Wheel loss incident
On 1 June last year, the operator’s vehicle LN17 LKJ lost both wheels from the nearside rear axle while in passenger service, and the vehicle was subsequently issued with an S-marked prohibition, denoting a significant failure in the operator’s maintenance system. A DVSA examiner subsequently visited the operator seven days later on 8 June and found that PMI records did not have a section to record brake temperature readings, nor were tyre tread depths or pressures being recorded; that PMI records were not signing off the vehicle as roadworthy; that the stated six-week interval between PMIs was not being respected; that the maintenance provider was only being used to identify defects, not repair them, with no evidence of remedial work being carried out, and that there was no VOR system in place.
Additionally, it was found that the operator did not understand the obligation to report incidents affecting safety to DVSA; that driver defect reporting was ineffective, and all reports examined were marked ‘nil defect.’ Furthermore, LN17 LKJ, when presented at MOT to clear the prohibition on 10 June 2022, failed the MOT for having wheels of a different size to each other and for an electrical fault, and vehicle V300 SAF was issued with an immediate prohibition when presented for MOT on 10 May 2022 for, amongst other things, a tyre over ten years old, a dangerous defect with the parking brake, and excessive emissions, and despite the previous incident there were still no wheel security or tyre management records or system in place.
The vehicle examiner concluded that the wheel loss incident, the MOT failures and prohibitions taken together indicated “a most serious failing of management control by the transport manager and responsible person.” As a result, Mr Shafi was called to a public inquiry in his capacity as both operator and transport manager; the inquiry, heard by TC Nicholas Denton, took place in Cambridge on 5 May 2023. Present were operator Safir Shafi, his son and driver Bilad Najam Shafi and DVSA traffic examiner Anita Barwell.
Public inquiry
In advance of the inquiry DVSA traffic examiner (TE) Anita Barwell provided an assessment of the operator’s compliance with drivers’ hours and tachograph requirements, which uncovered a number of issues, namely that vehicle unit downloads had exceeded the maximum 90 day interval permitted, driver card downloads had exceeded the maximum 28 day interval permitted, recent downloads had only been carried out following Ms Barwell’s request for data, and that, because regular downloads were not being done, driver card and tachograph data was not being analysed by the operator.
Mr Shafi accepted that he still had not implemented a wheel torque register, but said he was tightening up the wheel nuts with a ‘spanner,’ and accepted that he had not implemented a VOR record either. He said he had been trying to sell vehicle V300 SAF and had taken it to its MOT, where it had failed on a large number of items. It was not in service, he stated. Asked why he had engaged different maintenance providers to identify and to rectify defects, he said that it was due to cost.
Some of the gaps between PMIs were accounted for by the vehicles being off road, although no VOR records had been kept: LN17 LKJ had been off road from its MOT on 10 June 2023 until 4 October 2023, and had been repainted, Mr Shafi said. Asked for documentary evidence, he stated that he had paid cash in order to avoid VAT; nonetheless, the TC noted that the vehicle had not been given a PMI until 26 October, three weeks after Mr Shafi said it had been put back into service.
Asked why the PMIs were still not recording tyre pressures, Mr Shafi said he had not noticed that they were not recording that. It was also noted that the 2023 wall planner had no forward planned dates other than periodic entries of ‘need to book PMI.’ rather than actual PMI dates.
Licence contravention
Mr Shafi further stated that a new vehicle, YN53 VBZ, was a 36 seater coach, which the TC noted contravened the undertaking on his licence not to base any vehicle at his operating centre with more than 16 passenger seats.
Responding to the TE’s observation that he was not doing timely downloads of vehicle tachograph unit or driver card data, Mr Shafi said that he kept records of journeys in a diary and was looking at installing remote download facilities. In response to questions about his two recent speeding convictions, he said that he did not think that the speedometer had been working properly.
Summarising his position, Mr Shafi said that he was sorry for his shortcomings and had spent a lot of money on his vehicles. He had qualified as a transport manager in 2019 and was also a foster carer, with his wife, and had done training for that, but now proposed to cease fostering and concentrate on his minibus operation. He said he would employ the same maintenance provider to both identify defects and rectify them in future, and purchase equipment so that tachograph downloads could be carried out automatically. He asked to extend the maintenance interval from six weeks to eight, as the former was proving expensive.
The wheel loss incident had been a shock, he said, as it had never happened before, adding that he was now tightening the wheel nuts every two weeks with his spanner, though admittedly not with a more suitable torque wrench. It had been a tough year for him, he contended, and as a result of his grandfather dying he had taken his eye off the ball but would do better in future.
Findings
Having heard the evidence against the operator, TC Denton found that the operator had failed to fulfil the promise given on application that vehicles would be given a preventative maintenance inspection every six weeks, with large gaps in records, not all of which could be accounted for by vehicles being off road, since VOR records still did not exist despite the DVSA having pointed out in April 2021 and again in June 2022 that Mr Shafi needed to keep them.
The TC also found that the operator had failed to fulfil his undertaking to keep vehicles fit and serviceable, leading to a double wheel loss; the vehicle examiner noted that it should have long been visible to both operator and driver that the wheels were in danger of detachment. The operator was also found to have failed to fulfil his undertakings not to keep vehicles with more than 16 passenger seats at the operating centre and to ensure that rules relating to drivers’ hours and tachographs are observed.
“I am very concerned that many of Mr Shafi’s shortcomings in compliance were identified by the DVSA’s desk-based assessment as early as April 2021 but were simply not acted upon by the operator,” TC Denton said. “The absence of a wheel torque register was commented upon in April 2021, as was the absence of a VOR record. Although Mr Shafi replied that he would address these issues, he did not. A vehicle lost two wheels a year later. Even at this public inquiry, almost another year after that wheel loss incident, he still does not have a torque register and is using a spanner (rather than a calibrated torque wrench) to tighten wheel nuts. Part of the reason for the extended intervals between PMIs is a failure to record when the vehicles were off the road and failure to give them inspections immediately before they went out back on the road. Astonishingly, proper VOR records are still not kept.
“It is indicative of Mr Shafi’s lack of care for detail that, even though DVSA drew his attention to the fact that PMIs should be recording tread depths and tyre pressures, today they are still not recording tyre pressures and Mr Shafi has not noticed this.”
Despite having had his previous licence revoked in 2017 for failure to keep proper tachograph records, the TC further noted that Mr Shafi was still failing to conduct downloads at the required intervals and has not been analysing data.
Weighing up the pros and cons of the case, the TC found that on the negative side were the range of issues set out at the PI. However, he gave credit for the fact that vehicles are now being given roller brake tests and that Mr Shafi said he was prepared to acquire equipment for automatic remote tachograph downloading and to appoint one maintenance provider to both identify and rectify defects, although with some disappointment that he had not made those improvements well before the PI. The negatives heavily outweighed the positives, believed TC Denton. “The only concrete improvement which has actually happened is the roller brake testing,” he summarised.
Asking the question of how likely was it that the operator would comply in the future, it was the TC’s belief that given the PI had found almost exactly the same non-compliance issues that the DVSA’s desk-based assessment found in April 2021, which Mr Shafi promised to address, and given that even after the wheel loss incident he has not seen fit to establish a torque register or acquire a calibrated torque wrench, it was highly unlikely. The subsequent question of whether the operator deserved to be put out of business was answered in the positive, as a result of Mr Shafi’s failure over an extended time period to make the necessary improvements.
In relation to his role as a transport manager, TC Denton concluded that Mr Shafi was not of good repute and lacked the necessary knowledge and dynamism to put into effect the improvements required. The TC therefore revoked the licence, and disqualified Mr Shafi from acting as operator and transport manager. Since this was Mr Shafi’s second public inquiry in just over six years, although the first on this licence, and taking into account the unsatisfactory desk-based assessment in 2021 and an unsatisfactory maintenance investigation in 2022, a disqualification period of two years was deemed appropriate and proportionate, in line with the Senior Traffic Commissioner’s guidelines.
[/wlm_ismember]