Traffic Commissioner (TC) for the Western Traffic Area Sarah Bell has told today's Fleet Management Conference that an operator's OCRS is not the most important factor when deciding if there is a need to launch an investigation.
"At a Public Inquiry [PI] I always expect an operator to know what their OCRS score is," Bell says. "It can be a benchmark of good or bad practice - it is a starting point. Whether the score is amber or green wouldn't affect whether we look closer at them."
There are still a lot of operators not registering to receive OCRS online, according to Tim Culpin, partner at Aaron & Partners. "You should know what your OCRS is when apply for licence variation," he said. "A poor score will make it more likely you will be called to a PI."
Chris Dormand of VOSA says it is too early to say what today's Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) would mean for enforcement, but Bell said the TCs would make every effort to ensure VOSA was able to do its job effectively.
VOSA's funding came from both Department for Transport (£19m) and any surplus from O-licensing fees and Bell said the industry was not looking for a reduction in licensing fees but rather wanted more efforts to get rogue operators off the roads. "It is inevitable that funding will be cut but we must protect as much subsidy for VOSA by improving our efficiency," she says. "We are all working together to ensure the impact on enforcement is minimised."
The police are going to come under more pressure than VOSA from cuts, according to Culpin. "Cuts might affect intelligence sharing among constabularies," he told the conference. "Some already take it more seriously than others."
