A former senior TC has urged operators to notify the office of the traffic commissioners (OTC) about material changes, or face the “nightmare scenario” of a public inquiry.
Beverley Bell, who now runs a training and consulting firm, said operators and transport managers sometimes don’t want to contact the OTC for fear of putting “their head above the parapet”. But she said it was better to tell the OTC early about a change, as the staff can help and explain what is required.
Bell said hauliers often fall into the trap of thinking that many changes are administrative only and do not need to be notified. She said statutory guidance document number 1: Good Repute and Fitness, sets out the changes to be notified, but ones not listed include bridge strikes, RIDDOR incidents, overloading fines and fixed penalty notices.
And the former STC said that changes that definitely will affect the licence, such as a conviction or bankruptcy, are the ones where operators will be most reticent of due to fears of appearing at a PI – and yet the opposite might be true: “It is always better to report these matters early on, so you can tell the TC what went wrong and, more importantly, what you have done to put it right,” she said. “In summary, notify those changes and you can sleep more easily.”