1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186 
Late payment refusal upheld by Tribunal
Page 33
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A SUFFOLK COMPANY failed to convince the Transport Tribunal that it should have been allowed to pay its licence fee late rather than relinquish its licence.
Suffolk Gate had appealed against the decision of Eastern Traffic Commissioner Geoffrey Simms. The TC had refused to exercise his discretion to accept late payment of the annual licence fee following the automatic termination of the company's 0-licence when it failed to pay within the time limit.
The Transport Tribunal was told that having paid the annual licence fee in September 2005, Suffolk Gate had received no 0licence disc. Thai had only come to light when the vehicle went into a commercial garage for servicing in November 2006. The non-payment of the fee was an oversight but no reminders had been received.The company had acted promptly when the oversight had been brought to its attention and the fee had now been paid. The Traffic Area Office had written to the company confirming that a licence disc had been issued and posted on 7 September 2005.
It was conceded that when that disc did not arrive the vehicle had been operated with the 2004 disc displayed. The company had partly relied upon the driver and maintenance contractor to remind it of the need to pay the annual fee.
Supporting the TC's decision, the Tribunal said the company had been operating a vehicle with an out-ofdate disc since October 2005.'There were no internal systems in place to ensure that the company complied with its obligation to renewing the annual licence fee and display the correct licence disc.