OLCIS eNews – May 2025

Tuesday 27 May 2025

Welcome to the May edition of Logistics UK’s Operator Licensing Compliance Information Service (OLCIS) enews update. This document is a monthly round-up of transport news items sent out as part of your OLCIS subscription. Its objective is to keep you up to date with news affecting your commercial vehicle operation. To view previous editions and access your other subscription benefits, visit the dedicated OLCIS hub.

We welcome any comments and suggestions for new topics you would like to see included within OLCIS enews. Contact Customer Services with any feedback.

Parliament agrees to legislation abolishing five hours of mandated training for zero emission vehicles up to 4.25 tonnes

Following the House of Commons, the Lords has debated and agreed to the secondary legislation that will abolish the mandatory requirement for a Category B licence holder to undertake five hours of training before driving a zero-emission vehicle up to 4.25 tonnes. This legislation will also remove the prohibition on towing a trailer, up to a combined weight of seven tonnes.

This legislation will now be signed into law and will come into force on Tuesday 10 June. All current legislation and requirements will remain in force until this date.

LCV transport manager for international transport

A LCV Transport Manager was required from May 2022 for light commercial vehicles between 2.5t and 3.5t, used for hire and reward, on international journeys, when they fell into scope of operator licencing.

One option was to have an existing member of staff temporarily recognised as a transport manager.  The grace period for this option has now ended (21 May 2025) meaning they must have passed a transport manager CPC qualification by this date to continue being recognised as a transport manager.

DVSA clarifies guidance on operation of vehicles with expired ADR1C certificates

For many years, some operators have been operating vehicles carrying dangerous goods after the ADR1C certificate had expired in line with a valid MOT certificate. The interpretation was to allow a vehicle to be operated to the end of the month to align the MOT and ADR1c test. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) have confirmed that this is no longer the case and published guidance, which can be found here.

Operators will no longer be able to carry dangerous goods on a vehicle that has an expired ADR1C certificate. The enforcement agencies have agreed a three-month grace period which ends in June and will use this period to educate operators. For more information, please contact the Member Advice Centre.

DVSA updates Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness

The Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness (GTMR) outlines the regulations, requirements and industry best practice for maintaining your commercial vehicles – including daily checks, inspections, maintenance and record keeping. DVSA has updated the guide, updates include:

• Updated guidance from the Traffic Commissioners on maintaining compliance.
• Additional guidance for driver checks on vehicles arduous conditions.
• Clearer requirements for brake assessments, risk assessments and Electronic Brake Performance Monitoring Systems.

The most significant changes relate to brake testing. As a reminder, each safety inspection must include a brake performance assessment or a risk assessment if a laden test is not completed.

Operators must make sure they familiarise themselves (and their maintenance provider if using a contractor) with the guidance ensuring to:

• Review and comply with the brake assessment requirements.
• Update maintenance systems accordingly.

Logistics UK has a briefing note detailing the changes, it was also discussed in our latest round of member briefings.

Top questions this month at the Member Advice Centre

Q – For HGVs fitted with cameras recording footage around the outside of the vehicle, are there specific regulations on informing the public of this?

A – There is a requirement for signage to be present to alert those in the area that may be impacted that recording equipment is in use.

The Member Advice Centre have produced a fact sheet on ‘Camera’s and data protection’ which can be found here.

Q – Do I need a Driver’s CPC to drive my road sweeper?

A – Yes. Currently there are no exemptions from Driver’s CPC for driving a road sweeper. Essentially it is carrying goods and driving is the principal activity when using the vehicle.

Q – How many CPC qualified staff do I need?

A – There is no ‘ratio of vehicles/operating centres per transport manager’ in legislation, however, the Traffic Commissioner makes suggestions to how many hours of work that a transport manager should dedicate to a certain number of vehicles. These can be found in the Senior Traffic Commissioners Statutory Document on Transport Managers.

Compliance news: around the courts

Background

An operator holds a standard national goods vehicle operator licence which is authorised for two vehicles but currently only one vehicle is shown as in possession on the vehicle online licensing system (VOL).

An immediate prohibition was issued at annual test for the operators vehicle, due to a tyre bulging which was caused by the failure of its structure. The issuing Vehicle Standards Assessor considered the defect to be long-standing and indicated a failure of the maintenance systems.

A maintenance investigation visit was conducted by a Vehicle Examiner that was overall marked as ‘unsatisfactory’ with shortcomings found in the following areas:

• Inspection/ maintenance records.
• Driver defect reporting.
• Inspection facilities and maintenance arrangements.
• Vehicle emissions.
• Wheel and tyre management.
• Load security.
• Prohibition assessment.
• Transport manager control.

The operator responded to the vehicle examiner with assurances, they also included that they were changing their operator licence to restricted and that the transport manager had resigned.

The Office of the Traffic Commissioner wrote to the operator requesting evidence of financial standing, evidence that the transport manager had been paid over the previous six months and an undertaking for a partner to attend relevant training. No response was received, and a follow up letter was issued. No response was received from the operator.

The operator had applied to downgrade the licence from a standard national to a restricted licence. The next day, further information was requested supporting the application and a response received from a transport consultant. Within that was an acknowledgement that the transport manager had never been paid as they were a close friend. Trusting upon the standard of the last transport manager letter, and the concerns the Traffic Commissioner had that there was no evidence that there had ever been a genuine link between the operator and transport manager, the Traffic Commissioner suspended the licence and called the operator to public inquiry. The application to downgrade the licence was to be determined at the same inquiry.

The licence was due for continuation, but no continuation fee was paid and the system automatically set the licence to a status of ‘continuation not sought’. The operator simultaneously offered the licence for surrender. Under Section 16(4) of the Act, that regulatory action was under consideration, then the surrender of the licence is refused, and the licence is reset to valid to allow the inquiry to take place.

No-one attended the public inquiry from the operator or the transport manager, but they were informed that the hearing would still go ahead in their absence.

No evidence has been provided as was requested by the call-up letter.

Evidence

This licence had been a standard national since 2009. The request to downgrade came about following an adverse maintenance inquiry and the revelation that there has not been a genuine link between operator and named transport manager. The operator mentioned that they no longer carried goods for other people. The Traffic Commissioner wanted to establish from the operator that the operation could operate under the terms of a restricted licence. As the operator was absent, no response was obtained. The application to downgrade the operator licence was subsequently refused.

The Traffic Commissioner continued, that as no finances had been provided, financial standing was not satisfied.

Where an operator relies on an external transport manager, they are required to have a genuine link. The Traffic Commissioner continued to say at an Upper Tribunal this was considered that that a volunteer acting for no remuneration and without any contract, employment or otherwise, with the transport operator lacked the necessary link to be a transport manager and was fundamentally at odds with the general regulatory purpose to ensure competent and effective management of transport activities.

The Traffic Commissioner determined that the arrangement of this operator has been non-compliant. For over ten years this operator had benefitted from a standard licence when they shouldn’t have.

The Vehicle Examiner stated in their report that ‘the Transport Manager was not available on their visit and at no time interacted or contributed any information requested’. It was clear the transport manager was not conducting the role and simply allowing their name to be used.

Summing up

To conclude this inquiry, the Traffic Commissioner found with the loss of financial standing and professional competence, the licence was revoked with immediate effect.

The Traffic Commissioner continued to state they were forced to find the transport managers good repute to be lost, and they were to be disqualified from acting as transport manager until they took and passed the transport manager certificate of professional competence and appear before a Traffic Commissioner to explain how the role is to be performed.