At least 3,000 hauliers could lose 0-licence
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By Chris Tindall ALMOST ONE in 10 standard 0-licence operators could face "catastrophic consequences" for failing to return the mandatory transport manager questionnaires to Vosa, a lawyer has warned.
Figures contained in a response to a Freedom of Information request made by CM show: • 3,506 standard national and international licence holders — of a total of 43,312— did not return the questionnaire; • 360 of these licences have already been revoked; • the office of the senior traffic commissioner (TC) believes the remaining 3,146 licences will be dealt with over the coming months.
A breakdown of the figures for each of the traffic areas reveals that the North East had the most non-responses, with 585 (140 have now been revoked); the South East was next with 535 (150 revocations) and the remaining regions had between 299 and 457 nonresponses each.
EU legislation introduced in December 2011 required all nominated transport managers and operators with a standard licence to complete and return the questionnaire. The results enabled the Department for Transport to contribute to a pan-European database of operators and managers and enabled the auditing of transport managers' competency.
But those companies that failed to return the questionnaires have tested TCs' patience to breaking point, according to transport lawyer Andrew Brammer at Cartwright King solicitors.
"Non-compliance with what should be a relatively simple and well-publicised exercise will be a good indicator to a TC of more general problems in an operator's business," he explained.
Lucy Wood, transport solicitor at Rothera Dowson, said: "I wonder how many operators are still continuing to operate having had the letter about the proposal to revoke.
"I suspect the majority will have their licences revoked and they won't know about it."
• The full consequences of this story will be reported in CM 31 January.