Contracted maintenance no excuse for poor vehicle condition

By Categories: NewsPublished On: Saturday 12 January 2019

Contracting out vehicle maintenance does not mean contracting out responsibility for vehicle condition, transport solicitor Tim Ridyard of Ashtons Legal warned delegates at the FTA’s Transport Manager Conference late last year.

“You are still responsible for the vehicles’ condition as far as the traffic commissioner is concerned, and the O licence is at stake as is the transport manager’s repute.”

Transport managers were responsible for “actively discharging their duties,” and “while tasks could be delegated, responsibilities could not.”

“Slippage in the relationship which an operator has with its maintenance provider,” was the most common cause of problems.

He warned that a single S-marked prohibition from a roadside check could trigger a full DVSA investigation.

If an operator’s vehicle attracted a PG9, then the operator should do a ‘chapter and verse’ investigation into what had gone wrong, and keep the paperwork and parts for five years, as prohibitions remained on the operator’s file at DVSA for five years.

Operators needed to work closely with their workshop, and monitor inspections and annual test results.

“Problems with workshops can come to light when an operator wants to expand,” Mr Ridyard reported.

“One operator who thought he had a good record was refused an application to expand his fleet because one of his trucks had previously failed its annual test on brakes,” he recounted.