Forward posts with updated guidance from the Traffic Commissioners office.
Following consultation with stakeholders and industry, the Senior Traffic Commissioner’s statutory documents have been updated. The revised documents, which are available online, explain the legal basis and the way traffic commissioners approach the exercise of their statutory functions.
Detailed information on legislation for goods and passenger carrying vehicles is provided in the guidance, as well as other relevant legislation and case law. The revised guidance details a range of topics including; good repute and fitness, finance, transport managers and operating centres.
A short summary of the main changes can be read below.
This guidance sets out the requirements for satisfying good repute or fitness. The update gives better guidance on what’s relevant to your repute or fitness as an operator, and who is fit to fulfil conditions and undertakings on your licence. It also includes guidance on the approach licensing and compliance staff should take when acting on behalf of individual traffic commissioners, to determine good repute and fitness.
Financial Standing
On 1 January 2017, revised financial standing requirements will come into force for standard national and international operator licences.
Standard operator licence
| Vehicles | Previous rates | Rate from 1 January 2017 |
|---|---|---|
| First vehicle | £6,650 | £7,850 |
| Additional vehicles | £3,700 | £4,350 |
The rates are calculated each year against the Euro exchange rate as required under EU Regulation 1071/2009.
In recent years, the amount of money for standard licence holders has reduced. The levels are increasing because of a change in the exchange rate.
Restricted operator licence
There will be no change to the finance which must be available to support restricted licence applications and licences.
| Vehicles | Rate |
|---|---|
| First vehicle | £3,100 |
| Additional vehicles | £1,700 |
Driver conduct
This guidance covers vocational driver conduct matters that are referred to traffic commissioners by the Secretary of State for Transport (through DVLA). The update provides more detailed guidance and contains a number of case studies, which you can use to train and educate drivers.
Decision making
This document explains how commissioners make their decisions, including calling operators to public inquiry. Changes to the document will lead to less serious cases being taken out of public inquiry listings. This is so that the commissioners’ tribunal resources can be targeted at the most seriously non-compliant operators, transport managers and drivers.
Delegations to staff
This publication sets out matters that traffic commissioners routinely delegate to staff acting on their behalf and deputy traffic commissioners. The updates include information that allows traffic commissioner staff to make more decisions on behalf of traffic commissioners.
If you’d like to learn more you can view all the revised documents here.