Compliance failings ends in chop for meat wholesaler

The traffic commissioner (TC) has revoked the licence of a Luton-based operator after finding that there was a recurring risk to road safety due to a lack of driver training or systems for managing vehicle tests.

Partnership Amir Nawaz and Umar Riaz were called before the senior TC Richard Turfitt at a Cambridge public inquiry (PI) after first failing to attend a new operator seminar and then arousing concerns from a traffic examiner following a site visit.

The examiner said the operator, which held a licence for two HGVs and was involved in the wholesale supply of meat, appeared to have little knowledge of the O-licence requirements, with few systems in place.

It was not in possession of a company card or a download device and driver cards and the vehicle unit had never been downloaded.

There were no disciplinary procedures in place; no system for managing working time, Driver CPC and driver licence checks; no forward planning system; and no systems for managing vehicle tests, insurance, or tachograph calibration.

Turfitt said the absence of documentation to demonstrate basic compliance with the O-licence requirements meant the firm posed a serious threat to road safety and so the partners were given a month to make representations, take further action, and return from Kashmir where they had recently travelled as their grandfather had died. In the meantime, the licence was suspended.

In his written decision, the senior TC said he had then received representations from the two partners claiming inexperience, but that they were committed to being good operators and doing all they could to keep their one HGV in a roadworthy condition.

“I noted that the operators had at least engaged, but the correspondence offered limited assurance as to future compliance,” he said. I therefore determined to revoke this operator’s licence on 12 September 2022, by which time the operators would need to satisfy me as to their ability to meet the licence requirements under a new licence, if they are to continue operating.

“I made no order for disqualification and gave a steer as to what actions would be required, including attendance at operator licence awareness training, in order to equip them to comply in future.”