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BVRLA tackles TCs about
Page 4
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0-licence checking plans by Sally Nash
Traffic Commissioners are not doing enough in the battle against cowboy operators if they continue to insist that rental and leasing companies vet customers' 0-licences while allowing used truck dealers to carry on as usual.
That's the opinion of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), which moved quickly to question the lack of control over 0-licences in the used vehicle market just days after South Eastern and Metropolitan Traffic Commissioner Christopher Heaps pointed the finger at finance and leasing firms for the second time this year.
Reacting to Heaps' criticism, BVRLA director general John Lewis says: "Anyone can walk into a used truck lot and buy an old truck for a few hundred pounds and then operate it without insurance, 0licence, tax disc or MOT and without safety checks. Now that really is like selling a shotgun without a licence. Sellers of used trucks ought not to be able to sell such vehicles without sight of proper documentation."
Steve Hampson, managing director of BVRLA member company Hampsons, echoes Lewis' comments.
"What are we trying to achieve here?" questions Hampson. "Is it to outlaw the cowboy element? Well it won't work if someone can simply go and buy a £500 used truck and, if it is seized, go out and buy another."
In a second written decision, Heaps warned last week that time is running out for finance and rental firms to carry out checks on existing customers' 0-licences. On 22 February Heaps gave owners and lessors six months to carry out such checks. If they do not, after this period they run an increased risk of having their vehicles impounded as TCs will be taking a less sympathetic approach.
After 22 August—six months on from his initial warning—Reaps suggests that lessors should make annual checks that licences are still in force, perhaps while carrying out annual insurance checks.
"I will ask searching questions as to what enquiries [if any] have been made by lessors of their customers as to the existence of an 0-licence," warns Heaps. "Without binding my fellow Traffic Commissioners, I anticipate that they are likely to make similar enquiries."