Part of our Operator Questions series. The download deadlines, infringement management and calibration duties you carry personally - and how repute can be lost even when the O-licence survives.
This is one of the questions we're regularly asked by transport managers and operators - so here's the straight answer from our analysts.
Specific legal tachograph responsibilities for transport managers include correct installation and use of digital recording equipment, download vehicle units and driver cards within the 90 day and 28 day hard ceilings. Drivers Hours and Working Time management are core responsibilities monitored via data analysis, including infringement management, as well as calibration and vehicle unit maintenance obligations.
Transport managers are liable to face personal prosecution under s.96 of the Transport Act 1968 for causing or permitting Drivers Hours offences. Traffic Commissioners can revoke, suspend or curtail an operator’s licence if transport manager compliance is inadequate. Vehicles and drivers must be proactively managed, records must be maintained in an organised and orderly fashion so that specific information may be called upon if requested, maintenance regimes must be proven and continuous in nature and continuous professional development must be evident. Operators who firefight demonstrate a culture of non-compliance, a red flag for Traffic Commissioners often warranting further detailed investigation, potentially leading to identification of further areas of non-compliance and harsher outcomes.
If downloads are missed, if infringements mount up without active management, if calibrations lapse, the transport manager risks their professional competence, repute and livelihood. ‘Good repute’ can be lost independently of the operator if direct culpability is proven.
Transport managers must maintain valid competence for the role undertaken via the Certificate of Professional Competence obtained via examination under Article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 1071/2009. Good repute must be demonstrated from the outset, ‘Desk Based Assessments’ are a useful evidential tool and repute must be maintained throughout the entirety of the undertaking of the role. Loss of repute is mandatory disqualification as per Senior Traffic Commissioner, Statutory Document No. 3. The Certificate of Professional Competence is rendered invalid for the duration of the disqualification under Article 14(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1071/2009.
Transport managers hold personal responsibility to "effectively and continuously manage the transport activities" of an undertaking that they have a genuine link to.
The transport manager position is itself extremely legally exposed, where an individual has the potential to be disqualified from working in their profession indefinitely under paragraph 16(2) of Schedule 3 to the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995, separate from an operator outcome at tribunal. The Upper Tribunal states an active transport manager is "not a mere formality but a serious requirement".
Under the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995 (para 16), a Traffic Commissioner may take action against the individual transport manager alone, the operator's licence does not need to be at risk for the transport manager's position to be in jeopardy.
The Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005
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