Promoting culture of compliance across a business can be challenging. 

Your commitment to safe vehicle and driver operations relies on every individual making the right decisions, maintaining the daily discipline of checks and procedures. 

When you’ve got a transport manager in place to do that, it’s vital to make sure they’re actually delivering too. Beyond keeping the roads safe, your professional competence depends on it. 

In a recent case, West of England Traffic Commissioner Kevin Rooney found that even though a haulier employed several transport managers, no-one was properly carrying out the role. 

DVSA reported several shortcomings, including ineffective drivers’ hours management. Vehicle units were being downloaded every eight weeks with safety inspections. But Mr Rooney said this was unacceptable for such a large fleet of vehicles. 

Another serious concern was the lack of any in-year brake testing for trailers. 

The Traffic Commissioner found the organisation’s satellite sites hadn’t complied with central management requests. He said this culture needed to be challenged and that trailers must have brake tests.

He also pointed out that the one transport manager who could have prevented the failings didn’t. Although the TM decided to stand down, Mr Rooney said this had come too late. He was disqualified for a year. 

Even though the company had made some improvements by the time of the inquiry, most only happened after the hearing was announced. The company’s licence was curtailed from 130 to 90 vehicles indefinitely.

For more information about the duties and responsibilities of transport managers, read our TM guidance.