Decision

Decision for HRA BUILDERS MERCHANTS LTD

Published 23 December 2021

1. WEST MIDLANDS TRAFFIC AREA

2. DECISION OF THE TRAFFIC COMMISSIONER

2.1 PUBLIC INQUIRY HELD ON 9 DECEMBER 2021

2.2 OPERATOR: HRA BUILDERS MERCHANTS LTD LICENCE OD2048111

3. Background

HRA Builders Merchants Ltd holds a standard national goods vehicle operator licence (OD2048111) for four vehicles (four currently in possession). The licence was granted on 20 September 2021, with a number of undertakings set out below. The directors of the company are Ansar Ali and Saika Bibi.

The company’s initial application for a restricted operator licence was considered by DTC Nick Jones at a public inquiry in Birmingham on 5 August 2021. DTC Jones was strongly critical of the way in which a predecessor licence, OD1137765, held by the partnership of Zaman Ali and Arshad Begum (Ansar Ali’s parents), had been managed. DVSA had found numerous and serious shortcomings in compliance. At the time of the inquiry Zaman Ali and Arshad Begum were also directors of HRA Builders Merchants Ltd (“HRA”) which was applying for a restricted licence. DTC Jones revoked the partnership licence OD1137765 and refused the application by HRA for a restricted licence. He stated however that he could envisage granting an application for a standard national licence in the future if certain conditions were met, including the resignation as directors of Zaman Ali and Arshad Begum and the use of Thomas Reddy, the company’s recently appointed transport consultant, for at least the first few months of the new licence, in order to assist a new transport manager.

The company duly applied for a standard licence on 17 August 2021. The nominated transport manager was Magdalena Talty. In the course of the application process, the company agreed to have a compliance audit carried out by 30 April 2022 and agreed to the following further undertakings:

• Zaman Ali and Arshad Begum will have no involvement at all with the business except as shareholders;

• Thomas Reddy, transport consultant, will be utilised for the first three months of the licence to assist the new transport manager in ensuring compliance.

3.1 Further information

Very shortly after grant, my office received allegations that HRA had been operating vehicles between the revocation of the partnership licence OD1137765 on 5 August 2021 and the grant of its licence OD2048111 on 20 September 2021. My clerk wrote to the company on 23 September 2021 asking it to send in tachograph reports from the vehicle units of all its vehicles showing the mileage driven on each day between the 6 August 2021 and 19 September 2021. The data was requested by 30 September 2021. Nothing was ever received.

A few days later I received a letter dated 30 September 2021 from Thomas Reddy, the transport consultant who had assisted the company at the inquiry on 5 August and had impressed DTC Jones. Mr Reddy informed me that his services had not been taken up by the operator after the inquiry, probably because the company was unwilling to pay his fees (which reflected his expertise and were not at the bottom end of the market). Ansar Ali had only contacted him on 29 September, asking him for help as the traffic commissioner was investigating unauthorised use of vehicles. Mr Reddy had questioned him further and been told that that the vehicles had been sold to another operator who had then carried out transport services for HRA. Mr Reddy had asked for details about V5 documents, payments to the third party operator, tachograph lock-ins, who was paying the drivers etc. None of this information was provided to him.

On 6 October 2021 my office received an undated letter from the nominated transport manager Magdalena Talty, informing me that she was resigning as transport manager with immediate effect. The reason given was that she was not satisfied with the company’s explanation for the apparent operation of vehicles before the licence was granted.

On 20 October 2021 the operator nominated a replacement transport manager, Harmesh Dheer.

4. Public inquiry

Concerned by the information received from Thomas Reddy and Magdalena Talty and by the operator’s failure to provide the simple tachograph data I had requested, I decided to hold a public inquiry. The call-up letter was sent on 4 November 2021, with the inquiry scheduled to take place on 9 December 2021.

As well as the issues referred to above, the call-up letter included the issue of whether the operator was respecting the undertaking that Zaman Ali have no involvement with the business. It was noted by the central licensing office in Leeds that emails had been received from Zaman Ali at 0514 hours and 1413 hours on 15 October 2021. The first email read “OD2048111 hi ghis is my liecence number im in need of urgent help asap could slme1 ring me” (sic); the second read “I have asked for somw1 to ring me asap pleaee” (sic). The suspicion arising from these emails (both sender and content) was that Zaman Ali was still closely involved with the day-to-day business, in breach of the undertaking given by the company. Amongst other things he had referred to “my licence number”.

The public inquiry was held in Birmingham on 9 December. No one from the operator attended; nor did the operator send in advance any evidence of financial standing or the maintenance and drivers’ hours records requested in the call-up letter. No one from the operator contacted my office to say that they would not be attending. I have therefore proceeded to reach a decision on the evidence available to me.

5. Findings

I make the following findings:

• on the balance of probability, I find that HRA operated vehicles before its licence was granted. Both Thomas Reddy and Magdalena Talty strongly suspected that this was so. The operator could easily have offered evidence (in the form of tachograph unit data or contracts with third party carriers) that it did not, but has failed to provide anything;

• the operator has failed to fulfil its undertaking that it would employ transport consultant Thomas Reddy for at least the first three months of the licence to assist with compliance;

• the operator has failed to fulfil its undertaking that Zaman Ali have no involvement with the business other than as a shareholder;

• the operator is not of good repute. It has operated vehicles without authority to do so. Its failure to respond to my clerk’s request for simple tachograph information and its failure to appear at today’s inquiry show that it is not interested in engaging with the regulatory process.

There is nothing to put on the positive side of the balance.

6. Decisions

6.1 Revocation of the licence

Given that I have concluded that the operator is not of good repute, revocation of the licence is mandatory under Section 27(1)(a) of the 1995 Act. Because I have received no maintenance or other records which would enable me to form a picture on compliance, and because the continued involvement of the disgraced Zaman Ali (disqualified indefinitely by DTC Jones from holding an operator licence) rings urgent alarm bells given his previous gross compliance failures, I am bringing the revocation into effect from midnight tonight.

6.2 Disqualification of the company and its directors

Because of the company’s failure to respond to a simple request to provide tachograph information, because of the likelihood that it has operated vehicles before its licence was granted, and because it has failed either to attend the inquiry or offer any explanation for its non-attendance, I have decided to disqualify both the company and its directors under Section 28 of the 1995 Act from holding a licence in the future. The disqualification is for an indefinite period of time, but the company and its directors are free to request a hearing before a traffic commissioner at which to argue for the disqualification to be cancelled or time-limited.

6.3 Enforcement of the decision

Given the unlicensed operation and failure to co-operate with the inquiry, I have limited faith that HRA 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 HRA (registration numbers PO58 HYX, PK11 KCJ, MK56 HGY and AE06 OZO). Any such vehicle they find carrying goods on the public road will be liable to be impounded.

Nicholas Denton

Traffic Commissioner

9 December 2021