O Licence Holders: Can You Answer “Yes” to these 10 Questions? If Not, You Need to Act – Fast
1) Have you kept the Traffic Commissioner up to date with any changes to your maintenance arrangements or operating centre.
2) Do your vehicles undergo roller brake testing on at least a quarterly basis?
3) Do you currently have financial standing to operate your vehicles?
4) Are your drivers carrying out proper walk-around checks?
5) Do you analyse the tachograph data from both Vehicle Units and Driver Cards?
6) Do you have a disciplinary system in place for when drivers’ hours offences are found?
7) Is your MOT pass rate better than the national average?
8) Is your OCRS “traffic light” score in the green for BOTH roadworthiness and traffic?
9) Does your Transport Manager have “continuous and effective control?”
10) Do you check your driver’s licences at least every 3 months?
If the answer to any of the above questions is “no” then you need to act – fast. We frequently represent operators and Transport Managers at Traffic Commissioner Public Inquiries who simply would not be there had they taken a proactive approach to transport compliance. Traffic Commissioners are likely to take a dim view of an operator who buries their head in the sand until the call-in letter actually arrives on the doormat.
It can often be difficult to stay on top of O licence compliance when you also have a business to run, customers to service, and a busy management role.
The Solution
You can only fix problems that you know about. For this reason, we frequently help clients to arrange a thorough transport compliance audit. Beware however – not all audits are equal. The Traffic Commissioner’s may well be critical of audits which do not go into sufficient depth.
If you feel that an audit would benefit your business – not to mention help you sleep at night – speak to one of our transport lawyers today.
