KSD Environmental Services Ltd – which can legally operate 15 vehicles with 11 currently in possession – was told its licence would be revoked from January 17 2015 at a public inquiry in Eastbourne in September this year. Details of the case were issued today (December 8) by the Traffic Commissioner for London and the South East of England.
The decision was handed down by Traffic Commissioner and industry regulator Nicholas Denton, who concluded a “massive culture change was needed” at the business – which trades under the name Kingspan Waste Recycling.
An investigation into the trade waste collection and skip hire business was launched by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency in May 2013, when one of its drivers was found to have removed his tachograph card from his vehicle – but had continued to drive it.
The tachograph card records how many hours a driver has been on the road, and subsequent analysis of the operator’s data showed ‘numerous’ offences of drivers exceeding the 4.5 hour driving time, driving without a card inserted, and failing to take sufficient weekly rest.
‘Harm’
KSD Environmental told Mr Denton that even a suspension of its operator’s licence would cause the business ‘irreparable harm’ as well as leading to ‘environmental problems’ for Brighton.
But Mr Denton argued that the company had been ‘lamentably slow’ to take action to improve vehicle and driver safety standards – and criticised the role of firm director Mark Ratcliffe, after he claimed that his drivers were at fault.
The written decision of the Traffic Commissioner quotes events of the case in detail. It notes that Mr Denton said: “It took at least four months (and probably seven) before [the company] started to analyse data against the correct set of rules. Even now it is doing so, some drivers are going for months before their data is analysed and are clearly continuing to commit numerous breaches of drivers’ hours and working time rules.
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He added: “Mr Ratcliffe’s outburst that, in effect, everything was the fault of his drivers who should have known the rules and should have obeyed them suggests that, even today, he has failed to appreciate the responsibilities of an operator.”
“The director of the company does not fully understand that it is the company’s responsibility to manage things in such a way as to minimise breaches.”
In concluding, Mr Denton said he had decided not to disqualify any of the firm’s directors from holding or obtaining an operator’s licence in the future – as there was “insufficient evidence” that the company deliberately forced or instructed drivers to falsify the record or exceed their driving hours.
He also delayed taking effect of the decision for three months, to give time for waste contracts to be reassigned and to help avoid adverse environmental consequences in the Brighton area.
Drivers
However, due to the seriousness of the offences, Mr Denton ruled to suspend four of the firm’s drivers at a separate driver conduct hearing.
Kevin Snook was convicted of exceeding the 4.5 hour driving time on five occasions, while Paul Fry, Lee Shield and Hassan Yassan were all convicted of failure to record data.
When contacted by letsrecycle.com, KSD Environmental Services Ltd said that it did not wish to comment.
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