Decision

Decision for Carl Robert Green t/a Saxon Skip Hire UK

Published 1 April 2021

1. DECISION OF THE TRAFFIC COMMISSIONER

1.1 Applicant: Carl Robert Green t/a Saxon Skip Hire UK

2. Decision

The application for a restricted goods vehicle operator’s licence, made by Carl Robert Green t/a Saxon Skip Hire UK, is refused, pursuant to Section 13B and 13C of the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995.

3. Background

Carl Robert Green was in partnership with Neil Green and Barry Taylor until December 2019. The partnership operated under the trading name of Viking Skips using the sole trader licence of Barry Taylor (OD1130269). This licence was operated in a wholly non-compliant manner: vehicles were not given regular safety inspections; there was no downloading or monitoring of drivers’ hours data; four vehicles were operated instead of the authorised two. I revoked this licence at a public inquiry on 4 February 2021 and disqualified Barry Taylor indefinitely from both acting as a transport manager and holding an operator’s licence.

4. Public inquiry

Carl Robert Green applied for a restricted licence as a sole trader on 3 November 2020. Because of his association with Barry Taylor, I decided to consider his application at a public inquiry. This was held by video link on 16 March 2021. Present was Carl Robert Green, represented by counsel Harry Bowyer.

Mr Bowyer said it was accepted that Carl Green had been part of Viking Skips until December 2019. He had then set up Saxon Skip Hire UK in January 2020 and, until now, had carried out his business using a 3.5 tonne van.

I asked Mr Green why a book of delivery notes in the name of Saxon Skip Hire had been found by DVSA (in the course of their 2020 investigation into Barry Taylor’s licence) in a heavy goods vehicle displaying the registration KF57 VUX (the plates turned out to be false, with the true vehicle registration being KX53 DXF). The delivery note dated 13 October 2020, photographed by DVSA, showed Carl Green’s signature, with the vehicle registration number recorded by him as being KF57 VUX, a vehicle he was not entitled to operate as it was over 3.5 tonnes. Mr Green stated that he was used to driving KF57 VUX (at least until December 2019) so must have automatically written down the number he was familiar with. He had definitely only used his 3.5 tonne van, FX53 EVH. He had driven this for around 50 miles per day throughout 2020.

I asked Mr Green why, when in partnership with Neil Green and Barry Taylor, he had not – as a qualified transport manager himself – queried why the partnership was operating under a sole trader licence, why the vehicles were not being given regular safety inspections, why drivers never used tachograph cards and why four vehicles were being operated when only two were authorised. Mr Green said that he had not realised that the licence was only for two vehicles or that the vehicles were not being given safety inspections. He had believed Mr Taylor when the latter had assured him that the skip operation was exempt from tachograph rules.

I also asked why the partnership of Carl Green, Neil Green and Barry Taylor had submitted a fresh application for a licence on 21 February 2021 when I had disqualified Barry Taylor indefinitely from obtaining a licence. Mr Green stated that he was unaware that an application with his name on it had been submitted.

I adjourned the inquiry at this point to give Mr Green the opportunity to submit evidence of the mileage of the 3.5 tonne vehicle FX53 EVH. I wanted to check his statement that it had been in regular use in 2020. He subsequently provided an MOT certificate which showed that the vehicle had travelled 4728km between 6 March 2020 and 3 March 2021. 4728km equates to 2937 miles, or about 13 miles per working day (assuming 220 working days in a year), far below the level of use claimed by Mr Green.

5. Conclusions

I was wholly unconvinced by Mr Green’s explanation for the delivery notebook containing the reference to KF57 VUX. The explanation rests on the assumption that, more than 9 months after ceasing to drive the vehicle, he was still automatically writing down its registration number even though he was using another vehicle, a van, on a daily basis. The fact that the book of delivery notes was found in KF57 VUX and not his 3.5 tonne van is another strong indication that Mr Green is not being truthful. The fact that his 3.5 tonne vehicle has done a low level of mileage while his bank statements indicate a high level of skip activity in 2020 also leads me to the conclusion that Mr Green has been operating an unauthorised heavy goods vehicle in 2020. These conclusions do not suggest to me that Mr Green is a fit person to hold a goods vehicle operator’s licence.

A further indicator of unfitness is Carl Green’s association with the wholly non-compliant licence of Barry Taylor. Holding as he does both a driver CPC and a transport manager CPC, Mr Green must have realised that driving without a tachograph card was unlawful. Yet he continued to do so. Even if he did not, the picture is scarcely any more favourable as it simply reveals a monumental level of ignorance making him entirely unfit to be an operator.

Finally, because Mr Green’s intended operation is simply to transport waste in skips from residential or commercial premises to a waste site, the restricted licence for which he has applied is not appropriate. Because the transport element would not be part of a wider business (eg waste processing), the operation would involve carriage of goods (in this case waste) for hire and reward, and as such a standard national licence would be necessary.

Mr Green indicated that he would be prepared to make a number of undertakings re compliance, including the employment of a transport consultant and having an independent audit. However, these undertakings are not sufficient to outweigh his previous history of very serious non-compliance set out above. I am thus refusing the application.

Because Mr Green has been a partner in a wholly non-compliant business, and because he has operated an HGV without authorisation and been untruthful to me at the inquiry about this, I foresee little prospect of being able to treat favourably an application involving him for at least the next two years. Any further involvement in unauthorised operations would simply prolong this period.

Nicholas Denton

Traffic Commissioner

19 March 2021