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‘Surrender’ of operator’s licences
‘Surrender’ of operator’s licences
The Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995 does not, in terms, provide for the surrender of an operator’s licence. The Act does, however, provide for termination of a licence at the licence-holder’s request and we understand that this process is conventionally referred to as surrender of an operator’s licence.
Section 16(3) of the 1995 Act provides that, with one exception, a Traffic Commissioner must comply with a licence holder’s request to terminate an operator’s licence. The only exception to this duty on the face of the 1995 Act is provided for by section 16(4) as follows:
“(4) A traffic commissioner may refuse to comply with such a request if he or another traffic commissioner is considering giving a direction in respect of the licence under section 26 or 27.”
While the 1995 Act does not use the term ‘surrender’, the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Regulations 1995 do. For example, regulation 28(3) requires “the licence” to be sent or delivered to a Traffic Commissioner, on or before a date notified to the licence holder, “if a licence is…surrendered”.
- Heading
- This appeal is DISMISSED. The Traffic Commissioner’s decisions of 1 March 2024 (ref. OK2024813) involved neither error of law nor mistake of fact. Under section 37(2) and (4) of the Goods Vehicles (Li
- Events preceding the Traffic Commissioner’s decisions
- refused the operator’s application to surrender his operating licence
- the Appellant “has ignored the Public Inquiry process”
- Legislative framework
- an undertaking recorded in the licence has not been fulfilled ( section 26(1) (f))
- ‘Surrender’ of operator’s licences
- Rights of appeal
- Tribunal Procedure (Upper Tribunal) Rules 2008 (“the 2008 Rules”)
- Grounds of appeal
- the Appellant did not produce financial evidence because it was not requested until after his business had closed
- Proceedings before the Upper Tribunal
- Conclusions
- the Appellant gave no reason for failing to attend the hearing on 14 January 2025
- Challenging a Traffic Commissioner’s refusal to accept a surrender request: matters of principle
- Did the Traffic Commissioner lawfully refuse the Appellant’s request to surrender his operator’s licence?
- Why the Appellant’s grounds of appeal are not made out
- this is an assertion unsupported by evidence. The argument is not made out
- this argument is dealt with in paragraphs (2) and (4) above
- this argument is effectively dealt with in paragraph (2) above it was not for the Appellant to give himself permission to ignore the Traffic Commissioner’s legitimate request for information
- Conclusions