Birmingham owner-driver Ferdinand Pellington, 72, was advised by Traffic Commissioner (TC) Nick Jones to consider whether he wished to continue in operation in the future, after concluding that he did not think he had the expertise to run his one local service on time.
The TC cut Mr Pellington’s licence from three vehicles to two, suspended it and his vocational driving licence for two months, and ordered him to pay a financial penalty of £1,500.
He also disqualified Mr Pellington from acting as a Transport Manager (TM) until he had undertaken a two-day refresher course, giving him three months’ grace to operate without a qualified TM.
Warning that if a further investigation revealed that the service was still not running to time he would consider banning Mr Pellington from operating local services, revoking his licence and imposing the maximum financial penalty, the TC said that if he chose to surrender his licence he would accept it.
Mr Pellington, trading as Hi-Ride Coaches, of Holly Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, with a three-vehicle national licence, had been called before the TC at a Birmingham Public Inquiry (PI) because of concern over vehicle maintenance and bus service punctuality.
At the outset the TC said that the financial evidence was only sufficient for two vehicles.
Vehicle Examiner (VE) Andrew Male said that he carried out a maintenance investigation following the issue of a delayed prohibition for an oil leak. The authorised operating centre at Smethwick was not being used and the one bus in possession at the time was being operated from Mr Pellington’s home.
There was plenty of room for the bus in what was once a large garden. A recent BOAM investigation highlighted that there was no spare bus for Mr Pellington’s service. He had indicated that he might purchase a spare bus. There was room for one other bus at the house provided it was no longer than the current Dennis Dart.
The VE said that on viewing the inspection records he was concerned they did not clearly show where or by whom the vehicles were being inspected. No defects were recorded, the declaration fit for service was never signed, no mileages were recorded, and no tyre depths or brake efficiencies shown.
He called at Endeavour Coaches, the nominated maintenance contractor, and staff there told him that though they had carried out some repairs, they did not carry out inspections for Mr Pellington. He established that Mr Pellington carried out inspections himself at his house.
There was no hard standing and the ground was uneven. There was no cover and the site was totally unsuitable for carrying out any kind of thorough inspection.
Mr Pellington had since signed a maintenance contract with a third party. The inspection records were now quite good.
Traffic Examiner (TE) Kathrine Cox said that during a routine PSV check in June at Perry Barr it was noted that Mr Pellington’s 40X service failed to run when it was due at 1000hrs. At 1140hrs the bus arrived driven by Mr Pellington. Asked why the 1000hrs journey did not run, he stated that he had carried out some business in town and had dropped out of service.
It was discovered that Mr Pellington did not hold a Driver CPC and was completely unaware of the requirement to do so. A monitoring exercise was carried out between 6 and 25 July.
Of the 21 journeys monitored, 11 were seen and 10 failed to operate. Overall there was an 85% non-compliance rate.
When Mr Pellington visited the TE on 19 June, he said that the service was not being run because he had to visit her. He had since acquired another bus.
After Mr Pellington had said that the problems had been due to traffic, the TC said that the timetable needed to be more sophisticated. Traffic problems were not a reasonable excuse when only 15% of the services ran to time.
Mr Pellington had had a licence for 20 years and this was his first PI. He was a small operator who had “been under the radar”, evidenced by the fact that he did not realise as TM that he needed a Driver CPC to drive his bus.
Mr Pellington said that he had mistaken his TM’s CPC for the Driver CPC. He undertook to revise the service timetable and to go on a two-day TM’s refresher course.
After being asked why he had not operated the service while obtaining his Driver CPC, he said that he had to shut it down as he could not get a relief driver. The TC commented that that was not a reasonable excuse. Mr Pellington admitted that the service was not running that day for the same reason.
