‘Shockingly high’ prohibitions at fleet delivery firm

A Swindon operator has appealed against a decision to revoke its licence after finding it presided over a “truly dreadful” compliance record.

Scorpion Engineering, which is involved in fleet deliveries for leasing firms, as well as a 24-hour recovery business and workshop, appeared at a Bristol public inquiry, which examined serious breaches of undertakings, including repeated overloading of vehicles, failure to comply with tachograph rules and poor maintenance standards.

The revocation followed a history of compliance issues dating back to a previous public inquiry in 2017.

Despite some improvements, the traffic commissioner Kevin Rooney found that deliberate and reckless decisions continued, including operating unsuitable vehicles with trailers and failing to implement robust systems for load management.

TC Kevin Rooney said its director, Nigel Hannon, had acted recklessly in knowingly operating vehicles beyond their design limits and ignoring enforcement warnings: “The encounter report identifies 12 prohibitions over the five-year period,” he said in his written decision.

“That is a shockingly high number for such a small fleet. There are also five fixed penalty notices.

“Taken together, it identifies learning as non-existent.”

The company had been relying on 5.5-tonne Sprinter vans with trailers and had assumed they would have a train weight of 8.25-tonnes but when they were stopped it became apparent that the train weight was just 7-tonnes.

Rooney said: “I ask myself whether this is an operator I can trust to be compliant in the future.

“I find emphatically that I cannot. That is because of the repeated failings over a lengthy period of time, knowingly and recklessly made.

“The encounter history is truly dreadful. Mr Hannon has been on notice for years in relation to the lack of capacity of the Sprinters but wilfully and recklessly chose to ignore that, even after it was pointed out to him by the enforcement agency.

“I find that this operator has pursued deliberate and reckless acts that pose a real danger to road safety,” the TC added.

“There will also have been commercial benefits from running smaller vehicles than the work required.”

The retirement of Scorpion Engineering’s Sean Donovan as transport manager was accepted, along with an undertaking that he would not seek to rely on his qualification in the future.

However, the office of the TC confirmed that the operator has now lodged an appeal against the revocation.