Notification Of Offences To The Traffic Commissioner

• Published date: 27 January 2023
• Subject Matter: Corporate/Commercial Law, Transport, Corporate and Company Law, Rail, Road & Cycling
• Law Firm: Weightmans
• Author: Mr Chris Powell

If you operate goods vehicles, your duties to notify the Traffic Commissioner may be a lot wider than you realise

As with many licensing regimes, a goods vehicle operator's licence is subject to certain ongoing mandatory conditions. Among the most important of these conditions are those that relate to the licence holder's "good repute" or "fitness". The Goods Vehicle (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995 makes it clear that a Traffic Commissioner must revoke a standard operator's licence if he or she determines that the holder of the licence is no longer of good repute.

So how does the Traffic Commissioner decide whether an operator is of good repute?

The answer to this is found in another licence condition: after a licence has been granted, operators have an ongoing duty to inform the Office of the Traffic Commissioner within 28 days of any events or matters affecting good repute or fitness.

Matters which affect good repute or fitness include:

1. Any relevant convictions of the company or any of its officers servants or agents; and
2. Any other information as to the previous conduct of any of the company's officers, servants or agents, or any of its directors, in whatever capacity, if that conduct appears to relate to the company's fitness to hold a licence.

This is a very widely drafted definition. It not only includes criminal convictions but also wider matters of conduct. The Court of Appeal has confirmed that the conduct does not need to be unlawful to be relevant but must merely have some connection to the fitness to hold a licence.

What "relevant convictions" must be notified?

The definition of "relevant convictions" which must be notified is again very widely drafted. Crucially, it is not limited to convictions sustained by the company that holds the licence but extends to convictions of any company director, employee or agent, any company linked with its directors and any parent company.

The 1995 Act sets out certain classes of offences which must always be notified. These include, for example:

• offences relating to the plating certificates and goods vehicle test certificates,
• offences relating to maintenance, overloading and the licensing of drivers,
• operator licensing offences,
• offences relating to the unlawful use of rebated fuel oil,
• road transport offences relating to drivers' hours, the weights or dimensions of commercial vehicles, road or vehicle safety, the protection of the environment and any other offence concerning professional liability.

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