Transport compliance: Can directors leave compliance entirely to their transport manager?

A recent Traffic Commissioner decision concerning Kingpin Recycling Ltd is a useful reminder that compliance problems are often management problems, and that directors need to know what is happening within their transport operations.

Kingpin Recycling Ltd held a restricted operator’s licence authorising 12 vehicles and 14 trailers for its tyre recycling business. A DVSA roadside check triggered an investigation into drivers’ hours and tachograph compliance.

The investigation identified:

• 28 occasions where vehicles were driven without a driver card inserted
• 3,323 km of unrecorded driving
• incomplete tachograph and driver card records
• evidence that some drivers removed cards to avoid recording duty time
• serious deficiencies in management oversight and compliance systems

These failings occurred principally over a four-month period, during which drivers were found to be largely unmanaged and operating with inadequate supervision. Although the operator argued that this period coincided with significant internal management difficulties, culminating in the dismissal of its managing director, the Commissioner nevertheless held the directors collectively responsible.

The Commissioner concluded that future compliance was achievable, but that significant regulatory action remained necessary. The licence was therefore curtailed indefinitely from 12 vehicles to 6.

So, what can operators take from the decision?

Directors must ensure they know what is going on – they cannot just blame the Traffic Manager

Traffic Commissioners expect statutory directors to understand and oversee transport compliance personally. In large companies, a director will not see every truck roll out, or see every PMI, but there needs to be direct visibility from the TM to statutory directors who remain ultimately responsible for operator licence compliance. Lack of knowledge of operator licensing requirements is not a defence. 

Tachograph and drivers' hours systems must be actively managed

Failures to monitor drivers' hours, missing mileage and unaccounted-for tachograph records will be viewed as evidence of a serious breakdown in compliance management, even where no deliberate company-wide wrongdoing is proven.

Compliance problems are often management problems

The Commissioner found that the drivers were effectively "unregulated and unmanaged" during the relevant period. The underlying issue was not simply driver behaviour but a lack of effective supervision, planning and oversight by management.