What happens when a bad operator is banned from running vehicles?

It means they can’t apply for or get another licence. In fact, it’s a criminal offence to do so.

A small minority of disqualified operators do attempt to continue operating.

They take a chance and try to get round the ban. Often they’re not named on documents and don’t show up when the licence application is made.

Luckily, staff working for the Office of the Traffic Commissioner scrutinise applications to identify links and associations to banned operators. This stops them from getting back in under the radar.

But sometimes banned operators draw attention to themselves.

In a recent case, a disqualified operator was featured in a commercial vehicle magazine. It gave the impression that he was the operator and employer of a driver who was named in the article. The director of the company wasn’t mentioned at all.

That wasn’t the only thing to gave it away. The transport manager said he’d been contacted by the banned operator and had never met company director.

And when DVSA told the director they suspected he wasn’t the genuine operator, he responded with “no comment”.

This led Traffic Commissioner Nick Jones to say the banned operator and company director had been caught out as “dishonest liars".

You can read the latest written decisions by traffic commissioners here.