Office of the Traffic Commissioner Putting things right: a success story

Putting things right: a success story
Operator follows through on promise to take action
Each week we bring you stories of operators who’ve failed to change their approach to compliance. It’s as bad when they come before commissioners as it was during the DVSA visit.
But there are times when licence holders put things right. They see what went wrong and work to make it better.
Last year, Traffic Commissioner Kevin Rooney gave one operator a chance to prove this. The DVSA examiner said he was reassured by the firm’s promise to get on top of the issues.
When it came to the public inquiry (held in January), Mr Rooney found the examiner’s faith had been well placed. An audit showed strong systems, with drivers’ hours infringements considerably reduced. The company had also made plans for a member of staff to sit the management CPC exam.
A review of maintenance records revealed just one concern, around brake testing. The Traffic Commissioner said this was down to the shoddy practices of the franchised main dealer. Mr Rooney had seen enough from the operator to know they’d tackle the issue.
He gave the company a formal warning and got the directors to make a commitment on roller brake testing.
They’d shown him their intentions were genuine and that he could trust them to be compliant.
These are the decisions traffic commissioners have to make every day.
Will the licence holder be compliant in the future? Is the compliance that bad they need to put out of business?