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?
it’ll always been the nominated transport managers responsibly. You can get the o licence holder to sign all you want, but the whole purpose of a transport manager is to oversee and monitor the systems. It’ll be the transport managers repute in question when things go the proverbial way. These sample defect sheets you say the TM should look at, who choses which ones you see? It could be the case where the defect reporting system isn’t working and they’ll only supply the good ones, with maybe the odd bulb out here and there.
netty201:
it’ll always been the nominated transport managers responsibly. You can get the o licence holder to sign all you want, but the whole purpose of a transport manager is to oversee and monitor the systems. It’ll be the transport managers repute in question when things go the proverbial way. These sample defect sheets you say the TM should look at, who choses which ones you see? It could be the case where the defect reporting system isn’t working and they’ll only supply the good ones, with maybe the odd bulb out here and there.
True, but are you saying the TM should see every defect note? Surely seeing a representative sample constitutes overseeing and monitoring that there is a system in place. There has to be a degree of trust between operator and TM.
If your working with a new operator, then yes I would try and look through them all and make sure that there is a trace from defect to rectification. Mainly to see if they have the correct procedures in place and if they looked like that had it all in hand, then I’d only check periodically and chose them myself. Not just accept the ones given to me. Plus it is also suggested good practice to carry out gate checks from time to time, to see if the driver are carrying out their walk around checks and documenting it correctly. Don’t forget to make sure that the drivers have at least 10 minutes recording other work on their tachos at the start of the shift. DVSA like to see that as, if it shows the driver just driving off, then maybe they didn’t bother doing their checks
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk