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Tribunal finds Stobart is to blame but urges IC to rethink
Page 39
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THE EASTERN Traffic Commissioner must reconsider his decision to revoke the licence held by Eddie Stobart in his area. He made the ruling because he was not satisfied the firm could meet the financial competence of nearly m required for its regional licence.
However, in making the ruling in Stobart's favour, the Transport Tribunal said it believed the company was the -author of its own misfortune" and must furnish the Traffic Area Office with new evidence.
IC Geoffrey Simms revoked the Stobart licence on grounds of finance and professional competence. The licence authorises the use of 290 vehicles and 300 trailers. The TC noted a failure to notify him of a change in ownership and that the transport manager, Edward Stobart, had resigned as a director with no alternative transport manager nominated.
He said the company required £988,800 to satisfy the financial requirement for its EasternArea licence and in excess of f6.(XX),0(X) for all of its licences. Having considered all the documents he had been furnished with, he could not be satisfied that the company met that requirement.
The company had to begin afresh with a new licence application, which would require evidence of adequate finance, if it wished to continue to operate. Professional competence for an authorisation of 290 vehicles could be satisfied only by the nomination of four individual transport managers, none of whom could be William Stobart as he was nominated on licences in other Traffic Areas (CM 5 May).
The Tribunal said the assistance of a financial assessor would be helpful to the'rC. It did not consider that to substitute a formal warning for the TC's decision for the various failures would be appropriate. Had the company written to all traffic areas in the autumn of 2003 and again in February 2004 to notify the changes of ownership, some of the issues could have been avoided. It was a clear breach of licence conditions not to report such material changes.