Decision

Decision for Barry Bernhard Taylor t/a BT Mixer & Tipper Hire (OD1130269)

Published 12 February 2021

WEST MIDLANDS TRAFFIC AREA

1. DECISION OF THE TRAFFIC COMMISSIONER

1.1 PUBLIC INQUIRY HELD ON 4 FEBRUARY 2021

OPERATOR: BARRY BERNHARD TAYLOR T/A BT MIXER & TIPPER HIRE

LICENCE OD1130269

2. Background

2.1 Operator details and licence history

Barry Bernhard Taylor t/a BT Mixer & Tipper Hire is a sole trader holding a standard national goods vehicle operator’s licence (OD1130269) for two vehicles. The licence was granted at a public inquiry in January 2015.

Mr Taylor had previously been a director and the nominated transport manager of N B G Transport Ltd, which held an operator’s licence between 2000 and 2012. The company and Mr Taylor as transport manager attended a public inquiry in 2010 after an investigation by the then VOSA had reported that the operator lacked adequate maintenance facilities, had no driver defect reporting system and had a poor MOT and prohibition record. The company’s licence was curtailed indefinitely to four vehicles and a number of undertakings accepted, among which was that there should be an independent compliance audit every six months. Barry Taylor’s repute as a transport manager was marked as tarnished but not lost. Subsequently, no compliance audits were in fact ever carried out and the licence was eventually revoked in June 2013 after it was discovered that the company had been dissolved in November 2012. Later in 2013 Barry Taylor incurred a conviction for operating HGVs without a licence.

Mr Taylor applied for an operator licence for three vehicles in his own name in 2014. In the light of Mr Taylor’s chequered operating history the application was considered at a public inquiry in January 2015 at the end of which DTC Seculer granted the application, but for two vehicles rather than the three applied for.

3. DVSA investigation

In October 2020 DVSA vehicle examiner Paul Matthews and traffic examiner Katherine Cox visited Barry Taylor’s premises. Their reports noted that:

• no vehicles were specified on the licence, nor had any vehicles ever been specified on the licence;

• vehicles were not being given periodic preventative maintenance inspections;

• during the site visit a prohibition had been issued for tyre defects and an engine management fault

• there was no driver defect reporting system;

• drivers were not using tachograph cards or charts at all;

• at least four vehicles were being operated rather than the two authorised;

• a fifth vehicle had been found in the yard fitted with false number plates duplicating the registration number one of the other vehicles. The vehicle was out of MOT and out of tax;

• Barry Taylor was operating not as a sole trader but in partnership with Neil Green and Carl Green, who had been his fellow directors at N B G Transport Ltd. The vehicles were in the livery of Viking Skips (no relation to Viking Skips Ltd a company based in Essex).

4. Public inquiry

Concerned by this report, I called Barry Bernhard Taylor to a public inquiry in his capacity both as operator and transport manager. The inquiry was held in Birmingham on 4 February 2021. Present were Barry Taylor and DVSA examiners Paul Matthews and Katherine Cox. I presided via a video link, as my train to Birmingham had been severely delayed earlier in the day by a fatality on the line, and I had returned home to do the inquiry remotely.

Barry Taylor accepted that he had continued to operate four vehicles right from the start of his licence in 2015: it was uneconomic to operate only two. He had not put his vehicles in for preventative maintenance inspections for fear of DVSA finding out from the maintainer that he was operating more than two vehicles. He had not thought it worthwhile to record any drivers’ hours on tachograph charts or cards because driving was all local and would not exceed the hours. Also he thought that downloads might somehow betray the fact that he was using more than two vehicles. Fear of detection was also the reason he had not specified any vehicles on his licence, although two had been specified since the DVSA visit in October 2020.

Regarding the vehicle with the false number plates, Mr Taylor said these related to a vehicle which had been off the road for a considerable period and had had its number plates removed. When he had considered putting it back in service he had given it a road test, for which he had asked his staff to put the number plates back on. Unfortunately they had fitted the spare plates of another vehicle rather than the correct plates. He accepted that, even if the correct plates had been fitted, it was still not legal to carry out a road test of the vehicle which had no MOT or tax.

Mr Taylor said that he had now started to have preventative maintenance inspections for the two vehicles on the licence and produced three PMI sheets from December and January for the two vehicles. He had not yet arranged for tachographs to be used.

I noted that in Mr Taylor’s response to the DVSA report he had stated that the two vehicles not on the licence were now “parked up”. VE Paul Matthews however gave evidence that he had recently seen the vehicles concerned in commercial use on several occasions. Mr Taylor conceded that the vehicles were in fact still in operation.

Mr Taylor accepted that he had been wrong to act as he had done. All he wanted was the chance to show me that he could operate four vehicles compliantly for three months: I could then judge him on his record. I observed that he was in effect asking that I allow him to continue operating with an increased number of vehicles to the number currently authorised.

5. Findings

After having considered the evidence, I make the following findings:

• the operator has failed to fulfil its undertakings and promises:-

• to ensure that vehicles are kept fit and serviceable;

• to ensure that rules relating to tachographs and drivers’ hours are observed;

• that drivers’ would report defects in writing;

• that vehicles would be given safety inspections every six weeks.

• the operator has operated more vehicles than authorised on the licence. Four vehicles (rather than the authorised two) have been used throughout the whole life of the licence and continue in use even today;

• a further vehicle has been illegally used on the road with incorrect number plates, no tax and no MOT;

• there has been a change of entity in that the operator is a partnership rather than sole trader Barry Taylor.

6. Balancing act

There is very little to put on the positive side of the balance against the negative findings above. Barry Taylor has started in the past two months to put two of his four (or five) vehicles in for preventative maintenance inspections and has produced some recent driver defect reports. But these positive elements come nowhere near to compensating for the wholesale non-compliance which has been a feature of this licence right from the start. Mr Taylor chose to defy the limit of two vehicles by operating four and he has operated those four in a manner showing a reckless disregard for the law and for the safety of road users.

7. Conclusions

Barry Taylor’s history prior to this licence being granted was already chequered. A licence on which he was a director and transport manager was curtailed in 2010 for reasons which are similar to the shortcomings found by DVSA in their October 2020 visit (eg poor maintenance and no driver defect reporting system at all). After that licence was revoked in 2013 he was convicted of operating without a licence. Upon his sole trader licence being granted in 2015 he proceeded immediately to operate double the number of vehicles permitted, with no preventative maintenance carried out on vehicles and in complete disregard of tachograph requirements. Against this record, I have no hesitation in concluding that Barry Bernhard Taylor’s good repute is lost. His past history and present wholesale non-compliance demonstrate conclusively that he absolutely cannot be trusted to comply in the future (the Priority Freight question). His illegal and recklessly negligent way of operating has constituted grossly unfair competition against those operators who comply with the law and has been a severe threat to road safety. He deserves to go out of business (the Bryan Haulage question).

7.1 Licence revocation

Having concluded that Mr Taylor is not of good repute, revocation of the licence is mandatory under Section 27(1)(a) and (b) of the 1995 Act. I am also revoking it under Sections 26(1)(c )(iii), (e), (f) and (h). The revocation will take effect at 0001 hours on 21 February 2021 – I am giving less than the usual 28 days period of notice because of the substantial threat to road safety posed by this wilfully non-compliant operator.

7.2 Disqualification

Because I have concluded that Barry Bernhard Taylor is not of good repute, I must also disqualify him from being a transport manager on any licence (Schedule 3 to the 1995 Act refers). I do so for an unlimited period of time. Mr Taylor has shown that he is an incorrigible rogue operator and transport manager: there should be no place in the industry for him in the future.

For the same reasons I am also disqualifying Mr Taylor under Section 28 of the 1995 Act from holding or obtaining an operator licence in the future (and from being the director of a company holding or obtaining one). Again, because Mr Taylor has shown himself over the course of many years and two licences to be utterly uninterested in complying, I am making the disqualification indefinite.

7.3 Enforcement of this decision

Given that Mr Taylor’s operation of unauthorised vehicles and operation of all vehicles without any form of drivers’ hours monitoring continues to this day, and given his previous history of continuing to operate after a previous licence had been revoked, I have no faith that he will comply with this decision. I am therefore requesting DVSA and the Police to employ their ANPR and on-road resources to identify and stop vehicles operated by Barry Taylor, Viking Skips or Saxon Skips (another trading name associated with one of Mr Taylor’s partners). Any such vehicle they find carrying goods on the public road on or after 21 February 2021 will be liable to be impounded.

Nicholas Denton

Traffic Commissioner

5 February 2021