Dead man’s tacho card used to flout driving rules
Operator banned after using dead broter's tacho card
Compliance News - Chris Tindall
February 17, 2021
An Enfield operator who demonstrated a “wholly deficient” approach to compliance and co-operation with the traffic commissioner has had its licence revoked.
BK Plant, which held a restricted licence authorising two lorries, failed to attend a virtual public inquiry held by London and South East TC Sarah Bell, after its vehicles attracted roadworthiness prohibitions. Despite numerous reminders by DVSA traffic examiners following roadside encounters, BK Plant director Besmir Kodraj also failed to send any tachograph data for assessment.
In a written decision following the PI, TC Bell said the operator had only engaged with the regulatory process once it received a proposal to revoke letter from her office. “However, apart from the original adjournment request and its former solicitor lodging financial evidence, the operator has again failed to co-operate,” she said. “No data has been sent to the traffic examiner for the purposes of today and no maintenance and similar records have been sent to my office in advance or at all. The director’s email of 12 October 2020 is less than compelling.”
The TC said Kodraj was in the country when the requested data should have been downloaded and, even when he was abroad, he had still been able to change vehicles on the licence via the operator self-service system. “By his own admission, Mr Kodraj does not have an audit trail to demonstrate compliance. Even so he continues to operate. Mr Kodraj has this morning added a vehicle PJ09LCW to the operator licence and removed another to make way for it. This approach to compliance and co-operation is wholly deficient.”
Summing up, the TC said BK Plant put commercial need ahead of compliance over a sustained period and it appeared to respect neither road safety nor fair competition. She said: “Accordingly, the evidence is overwhelmingly that it is no longer fit to hold a licence, and by Mr Kodraj’s own admission the operator does not have sufficient systems to demonstrate compliance.”
TC Bell said she had not made a direction under Section 28 of the Act, which relates to disqualification. “However, any future application by this company and/or this director must be referred to a traffic commissioner or deputy traffic commissioner and must not been dealt with under any delegated authority,” she added.
