First PI appearance ends in licence revocation

An operator in Chichester who broke every undertaking on its licence and posed a significant risk to road safety has had its licence revoked.

Daniel Grant, director of World of Solar, which ran three lorries out of a Sidlesham operating centre, did not appear before traffic commissioner Sarah Bell at an Eastbourne public inquiry but she decided to hear the case in his absence.

She said the areas of concern were that the company failed to cooperate with the DVSA, did not attend four new operator seminars, was likely involved in licence lending with another firm called No.1 Scaffolding solutions and was relying on an unauthorised operating centre, which was a criminal offence.

A DVSA vehicle encounter with one of World of Solar’s lorries also found that it was overloaded, had no vehicle excise duty, no MOT or valid insurance and was significantly unroadworthy with several prohibitions issued.

In her decision, the TC said: “That should not happen with any company vehicle whether it is a car, a small van or a large van let alone an in-scope vehicle.

“This operator should have had rigorous systems in place, even for their small vehicles.”

She added: “Whilst this is the operator’s first public inquiry that is not a barrier to revocation in a serious case and this is such a case.”