Traffic commissioners’ annual report released
The independent traffic commissioners for England, Scotland and Wales have released their annual report for 2012-13 – in which they have outlined recent developments in their work overseeing operator licensing for goods and passenger vehicles, and pursuing regulatory action against the non-compliant.
North West of England and senior traffic commissioner: Beverley Bell
In her introductory report, senior traffic commissioner Beverley Bell highlighted some recent projects being undertaken by her colleagues, including an effort to “improve driver knowledge and behaviour” surrounding Driver CPC, and “a new agreement for HMRC to share data with traffic commissioners about those operators who compete unfairly with compliant operators by using red and laundered diesel in their vehicles. It is never appropriate for operators to carry out this unfair practice but this is even more keenly felt in these constrained financial times.”
But she said: “There is still much to be done by traffic commissioners if we are to reach our goal of further modernising the effective regulation of licensed operators. And that is where my challenge lies… All regulators would like more resources and all regulators are keen to maximise the use of those resources. Last year my resources were woefully thin… If traffic commissioners are to be truly effective and to change the way in which we operate then we need the time and money to do that.”
“VOSA [now DVSA] still has a long way to go in delivering an effective enforcement regime,” Bell added, echoing her outspoken comments to the House of Commons transport select committee last year – but reported that an official from the Department for Transport “has worked very hard with VOSA to ensure that they do deliver what is needed.”
On her North West region Bell said: “Those cases where the licences have been allowed to continue with a careful watch being kept on the operators are to be regarded as success stories. But it is also good to see that my deputies do not resile from excluding from the legitimate industry those operators who are prepared to compromise road safety and fair competition to an unacceptable extent – whatever the reason.”
East of England traffic commissioner: Richard Turfitt
Eastern traffic commissioner Richard Turfitt used his report to outline the importance of effective enforcement, without which he said “regulation risks becoming an empty ritual.” As an example, he points out that: “In the last year there were no public inquiries in this area to consider action against local bus service providers and nationally the figure has dropped by some 45 per cent.
“To be able to act I rely on VOSA to deliver evidence so that the criminal or unscrupulous do not gain an unfair advantage over responsible operators… At various times during the year bureaucratic delays in filling frontline posts has had a noticeable effect. The professionalism of the remaining examiners during that period is a credit to the agency.”
Turfitt also pointed out that disqualifications had doubled, “due in large part to the new powers in respect of transport managers. We have sought to tackle unscrupulous individuals who seek to act as transport managers in name only or who see appointment as an opportunity to use the operator as a cash cow. We will continue in those efforts to ensure a level playing field for operators.
“It is therefore concerning that advertisements, in some of the trade press, point to the return of rogues seeking to ‘buy’ operator licences and circumvent the requirements met by responsible operators. The continued failure of certain banks to support small and medium sized enterprises is also becoming a theme at public inquiry.”
North East of England traffic commissioner: Kevin Rooney
Kevin Rooney, commissioner for the North East, raised the issue of periodic maintenance inspections, querying why the period of six weeks between inspections is chosen by so many operators. He said VOSA’s roadworthiness guide: “is explicit that in saying that the actual period needs to be derived based on a range of factors and tailored depending on performance. It is for a professional operator to work this out and set appropriate frequencies across his or her fleet. Six weeks is undoubtedly a reasonable starting point for many operations but when I see it applying across a range of vehicle ages and types and different operations in an operator’s fleet it causes me concern.”
Other issues highlighted included the need for transport managers to “effectively and continuously manage the transport activities of the undertaking”, observing that nowhere does the EU Regulation defining the role “mention popping in once a fortnight for a cup of tea and a shuffle of a few tacho charts, yet many who appear before me purporting to be a transport manager seem to do little more than that.”
He added: “An operator’s licence is not like a TV licence or a tax disc. It is authority to operate large vehicles, some of which carry passengers, that are disproportionately involved in causing death and serious injury. That authority to operate brings with it the complete responsibility for doing so safely, and fairly.”
London and the South East of England traffic commissioner: Nick Denton
Nick Denton encountered several bugbears during his first year in office, not least transport managers “who are named on the licence but who have little real involvement in the business. I saw one example where a transport manager was claiming to work 32 hours a month for an operator but charging only £100. Can he have been doing a proper job? Another failed to spot that his operator did not have two drivers as claimed but rather one driver using two tachograph cards under different names. I have not hesitated to take away the repute of such managers.”
But scaffolders in particular were singled out for a scolding, some of whom Denton said “take health and safety seriously when they are erecting their scaffolding and walking around at height, and then ignore the subject entirely when they leap into an overloaded and defective lorry and drive off without checking it.”
He also noted the success of “informal, short, preliminary hearings” he had held for operators “whose shortcomings are not too serious but… might develop into something worse.” Whilst saving time and money by avoiding formal public inquiries in these cases, Denton said the operators in question were “usually sufficiently frightened by the experience to go back and put their house in order.”
In addition, Denton has been busying himself with drafting a leaner version of the letter sent out by traffic commissioners to call operators to public inquiry, “rather in the manner of the British Ambassador to Guyana who regarded his main achievement in the post as drawing up new fire regulations.”
He noted that: “I myself lose the will to live somewhere in the middle of the current eight page letter: my objective is a much shorter, simpler letter which operators will actually read, understand and do something about.”
West Midlands traffic commissioner: Nick Jones
Nick Jones said that “work in the West Midlands of England continues largely as before,” but raised the recurring spectre of the traffic commissioners’ statutory independence from government, and the perception that this has been undermined by “systemic structural problems”. He said that the framework agreement laid out in the previous year (TO September 2012), which aimed to clarify the distinct roles of the traffic commissioners, the Department for Transport and its agencies, was “too often ignored”.
He referred to a ruling from senior judges, which warned the DfT and VOSA not to act in ways “which, directly, intentionally or inadvertently, undermine or give the appearance of undermining the independence of traffic commissioners” – and hoped the announcement of the VOSA/ DSA merger would provide an opportunity to tackle some of the issues at hand.
While acknowledging the professionalism of VOSA’s “grass roots staff” in particular, Jones ended his report by saying: “Now is the time for VOSA management to start listening to and benefitting from the expertise and specialist knowledge of traffic commissioners.”
West of England traffic commissioner: Sarah Bell
Sarah Bell noted that: “across the board there is an increase in work in the West of England, in part created by backlogs from staff shortages.” She added that: “The inability to fill posts in a timely manner is difficult to explain to operators and wider stakeholders,” blaming the “current civil service process” which means “it can be a year before a permanent post is filled.”
Bell was also vocal about VOSA, whose “lack of apparent understanding of the [aforementioned framework agreement] … and the poor communication… is manifesting itself locally and has added unnecessary pressure to my staff and I over a sustained period.”
Some issues stemmed from a relocation of Bell’s office to VOSA’s Bristol premises. “The move to Jubilee House was not a happy one,” she said, adding that various issues that have come about as a result of the office share, and which “strike directly at the perception of [traffic commissioners’] independence,” remain “unresolved.”
“There is good communication at a level in relation to the portfolio work that Kevin Rooney and I are doing with the operational managers of VOSA,” she said. “However, the wider ignorance of the framework is unhelpful, particularly where it reaches board level. It cannot be surprising that VOSA staff attending Jubilee House on other business feel confident to ignore the safeguards provided by agreed protocols said to be in place whilst issues are resolved.”
Scotland traffic commissioner: Joan Aitken
Scottish TC Joan Aitken celebrated 10 years in the job last March, but lamented VOSA’s decision to do away with its bus compliance officer posts in Scotland.
“The statistics in this report reflect the complete drop in my receiving reports from VOSA of service buses failing to operate compliantly. I wish that was because all of Scotland’s buses run to time and route, reasonable excuse excepted. I have felt the loss of that resource acutely.”
However, she praised the fact that Scottish VOSA examiners now have “the ‘power to stop’ vehicles which their colleagues in England and Wales have had for many years.
“I particularly want to compliment the VOSA examiners in Cumbria and their road traffic police colleagues (with help of course from Scottish colleagues) for the very high standard of their joint working on the M6/M74 which led to the convictions of some seriously non-compliant Scottish truck drivers and my being able to revoke their driving entitlements,” Aitken said.
Other successes included driver conduct hearings for 60 professional drivers “in respect of mobile phone offending with the majority having their entitlement to drive professionally suspended for periods ranging from 14 days to several months.”
“In respect of licensing, as in previous years I remain concerned at the quality or authenticity of some transport manager arrangements. For every revoked or insolvent operator there seems to be a ‘phoenix’ and we take very seriously the fair competition aspects of such. ‘Entity, entity, entity’ is my refrain to capture that operator’s licences are not transferable – would that those advising operators to incorporate would heed that. Far too often VOSA examiners or my own teams discover that the entity which is operating the vehicles does not hold a licence.”
Wales traffic commissioner: Nick Jones
Covering Wales as well as the West Midlands, Nick Jones said that “problems caused by traffic commissioner services being administered from England; comparatively lower safety levels in parts of Wales; comparative lack of regulatory interventions in parts of Wales; and, ongoing Welsh language problems… have not been addressed and matters are coming to a head.”
Not least of these concerns was a formal complaint to the Welsh Language Commissioner concerning VOSA’s failure to provide Welsh-language services for operators, as is required of public bodies by the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011.
Jones noted that: “Within the next year or so, I will as industry regulator, be expected to take action against PSV operators who have registered services but do not themselves provide equal treatment for Welsh and English language speakers. I expect operators to comply with the law and will take action if they do not; it is not unreasonable for me to expect that those who are supposed to support me comply with their own statutory responsibilities.”
Last year Jones told the Welsh Assembly’s enterprise and business committee: “I do not know whether it is because VOSA made the Welsh language officer that it had redundant in one of its cuts, but the IT equipment is not bilingual, bus registrations are not bilingual, and if people want to telephone with queries, they do not get a bilingual response.”
On a more positive note, Jones confirmed that Welsh Government funding had “led to higher levels of timetable monitoring and compliance when compared to that in England.”
