The Traffic Commissioner suggests that the transport manager should have various systems in place but the reality is that it is difficult to monitor these. Is it sufficient to put the burden on the O-licence holder and get his signature to say that he has done them? For example, driver’s daily walk round checks.
Has the O-licence holder and all his drivers seen the HM.Gov walk-around checks video?
Is it sufficient to have a document signed by the O-licence holder confirming this? If an agency driver gets to the yard before anyone else is in we won’t know if he has seen the video. Is it sufficient to have a tick box on the driver’s defect note confirming that he has seen it? The driver has to sign and fill in a defect note. On the grounds of practicality, law and civic decency it is important that this is done and it gives some protection to the driver.
A simple “no defects” is sufficient if it is true but, if the vehicle goes in for its maintenance check the following day and is found to have a bald tyre, the credibility of the driver and the O-licence holder is undermined. DVSA like to see a paper trail from the defect note, to the reportee, to the maintenance provider, to the issue being signed off as rectified.
The TC requires that the OLH has a system in place for defect reporting. I would suggest that if the TM receives copies of a couple of defect notes each month, it would indicate that there is a system in place.
Has anyone here ever received a ticking off from DVSA for failure to monitor defect notes?