Attempt to blame “incompetent” transport consultancy fails in operator’s appeal bid

A Tyneside operator has had its appeal against a licence refusal dismissed after blaming a consultancy for failing to provide a competent transport manager.

Armstrong Freight Logistics, which wanted to operate HGVs out of a Hebburn operating centre, appealed a decision by the traffic commissioner to refuse its application when its nominated transport manager was removed from the licence.

The office of the TC (OTC) wrote to the operator informing it that Andrew Jackson had requested to be removed from the licence and therefore its application would be refused unless it found a replacement.

The deadline was extended when sole director Brain Armstrong convinced the OTC its letter had not been received.

However, a replacement transport manager was not nominated and the licence application was eventually refused.

Armstrong then appealed the decision, claiming it “had the misfortune to engage the services of an incompetent transport consultancy firm who put forward a transport manager without conducting the necessary due diligence checks.

“Once it became clear that this manager’s competence would be considered at a public inquiry, he [Jackson] withdrew his interest and the consultancy failed to provide further assistance.”

The appeal notice added: “The operator subsequently engaged a reliable consultancy which put forward a new transport manager with a high level of professionalism but, unfortunately, this happened two days after the deadline set by the traffic commissioner.

“It had not been possible to identify a replacement transport manager within the three-week time frame set by the commissioner.”

However, the appeal tribunal was unconvinced by Armstrong’s arguments. N its written decision, the tribunal said: “When we asked Mr Maddock what the traffic commissioner did wrong, we were told only that it was difficult to obtain information from the OTC.

“The commissioner was faced with an operator without a designated transport manager and, unless the commissioner acted unfairly, his decision was unimpeachable.

“This operator had over two months, rather than three weeks, to source a replacement transport manager. We cannot accept that the traffic commissioner imposed an unreasonable deadline of three weeks for the operator to locate a transport manager.

“The traffic commissioner did not act unfairly and we dismiss this appeal.”