Senior IC interprets licence regs
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Senior Traffic Commissioner Michael Betts is about to publish guidelines for TCs on how to interpret the new wording in the Operator Licensing legislation in relation to good repute.
This was revealed by North Western Deputy TC Mark Hinchliffe when he adjourned consideration of disciplinary action against Altrinchambased Gee Transport pending the publication of these guide
lines. Gee had been called to a disciplinary inquiry following 22 convictions against the partners and 12 against their drivers for a variety of offences, most of them involving overloading.
At the beginning of last October Schedule 3 of the 1995 Act was amended to remove the word "repeated" from the phrase ''convicted of repeated road transport offences". This has already led to the revoca
lion of a licence held by Surrey haulier Thomas McHugh—a decision that is under appeal to the Transport Tribunal. The case has also been referred to the European Court.
In the Gee case. Hinchliffe said that without doubt the offences of which the partners and their drivers had been convicted were "road transport offences". A strict interpretation of the legislation would lead to an auto
matic licence revocation for loss of repute.
However, Hinchdiffe said that the TCs as a whole had been anxious about the implications of this change and were trying to adopt a consistent approach. He felt it was likely the word "serious" would be added into the wording of the schedule; if it was, he added, the question was, what was meant by the word "serious"?
• See Comment, page 4.