Decision

Decision for 121 Carz Ltd (PD2046078)

Published 2 March 2023

0.1 In the West Midlands Traffic Area

1. Written Decision of the Deputy Traffic Commissioner

1.1 121 Carz Ltd (PD2046078)

2. Background

121 Carz Ltd holds a standard national passenger vehicle operator licence, granted in August 2021 initially for four vehicles and subsequently reduced to one vehicle after the operator proved to have insufficient financial standing for four. The sole director of the company is Mushtaq Hussain. The most recently nominated transport manager, from June to October 2022 is Paul Waterland. He was the third transport manager in the short life of the licence.

Mr Waterland, in informing the traffic commissioner’s office of his resignation, stated that he had been very concerned at the unroadworthy state of the operator’s one vehicle. It had been taken for a pre-MOT check in October 2022 which had revealed a long list of defects, including missing wheel nuts, brake failures and serious body corrosion. Despite his advice that the vehicle should be towed or trailered back to the operating centre, it had been driven back on the public road.

Owing to these concerns, both the operator and previous transport manager Paul Waterland were called to a public inquiry. Call-up letters were sent on 17 November 2022, with the inquiry due to take place on 12 January 2023.

On 14 December 2022, the traffic commissioner’s office in Birmingham received an email from 121 Carz Ltd stating that they wished to surrender the licence. Because the issues before the inquiry included possible deliberate operation of a seriously unroadworthy vehicle, I decided not to accept the surrender and maintained the inquiry. The operator was informed that the inquiry would go ahead. Although the operator had been requested to provide maintenance and drivers’ hours records in advance of the inquiry, no records were ever forthcoming.

3. Public inquiry

The public inquiry was held in Birmingham on 12 January 2023. Ex-transport manager Paul Waterland attended. Director Mushtaq Hussain did not attend. Two other people attended (one of them Mr Hussain’s son) but did not have the appropriate prior written approval from the company to represent it. An email was received 30 minutes after the inquiry was due to begin from (email address redacted) with a cut and paste signature from Mushtaq Hussain, but it was not on company headed paper and did not state that the representative had the right to speak and make binding decisions (requirements for delegated authority clearly set out in the call-up letter).

I noted that the company’s one vehicle, P121 CAR, had failed its MOT five times since being acquired by the company in March 2018. It had not had a first-time pass since. Each failure was for a long list of items: the vehicle had had to be tested three times in October 2021 before it finally passed. The MOT expired in October 2022 after it proved uneconomic to rectify the defects found at pre-MOT.

Mr Waterland said that, as far as he had been aware, the vehicle had been off-road for the whole time he had been the transport manager. He had verified that there were no maintenance records for the vehicle. He stated that he had never met director Mushtaq Hussain at any stage, always dealing with his son and another member of staff.

4. Findings

The vehicle has clearly been in a very poor state of repair ever since having been first acquired by 121 Carz Ltd in March 2018 (the company held a previous operator licence PD2025230 between November 2019 and 6 April 2021 when it was revoked owing to the lack of a transport manager). Contrary to the explicit advice of the transport manager, the vehicle was driven under its own steam away from the pre-MOT maintenance provider in a highly unroadworthy condition. I find that the company has failed to fulfil its undertakings to ensure the lawful driving of vehicles and to keep vehicles fit and serviceable (Section 17(3)(aa) refers).

The company’s failure to attend the public inquiry and failure to provide the requested maintenance records has prevented me from ascertaining the degree to which the vehicle has actually been used or whether it really was off the road during the life of the licence.

The company clearly lacks professional competence (Section 17(1)(a) of the 1981 Act refers); to do it justice, it has expressed a wish therefore to surrender the licence.

5. Decisions

In the light of the findings related to roadworthiness and unlawful driving above, I am revoking the licence under Section 17(1)(a) and 17(3)(aa) rather than accepting its surrender.

I am not making any adverse finding against the good repute of transport manager Paul Waterland, but he is warned that he should take care in future not to be associated with a licence which apparently has no active vehicle for long periods of time, as the requirements of stable and establishment are not met. He should also ensure in future that he has a written record of his resignation as transport manager: a verbal conversation leaves no evidence.

I have considered whether to make a disqualification order against 121 Carz Ltd and its director Mushtaq Hussain. Because there is not sufficient evidence that the vehicle P121 CAR has been used to carry passengers in an unroadworthy state, I have refrained – just – from doing so (although I rather suspect that this has been the case). Mushtaq Hussain’s refusal to attend the inquiry does him no credit. Moreover, the extent of his involvement in the business is questionable, given that the transport manager never met him and that a cut and paste signature is the only evidence the traffic commissioner’s office has of him. While stopping short of a disqualification order, I remain highly sceptical of the fitness of the company and/or Mushtaq Hussain to hold a licence in the future. Any application involving them will come under considerable scrutiny and will involve a public inquiry where the exact extent of the operation of vehicle P121 CAR and its maintenance regime over the period August 2021 to October 2022 will be gone into in detail.

Nicholas Denton

Deputy Traffic Commissioner

12 January 2023