[2025] UKUT 106 (AAC)

On 6 June 2024, the OTC sent a Proposal to Revoke (“PTR”) letter to the operator. Having summarised the law about the requirement for an operator to have a transport manager, the letter proceeded to state:

“…It has been brought to the attention of the Traffic Commissioner that there is currently no transport manager specified on your licence…

…the traffic commissioner is considering the revocation of your operator’s licence on the grounds detailed above [no designated transport manager]…Under section 27(3) [of the 1995 Act] you are entitled to make written representations to the traffic commissioner. Section 29(1) allows you to request a public inquiry, in order to offer further evidence as to why the licence should not be revoked.

Any written representations must be made to this office by 27/06/2024 for the traffic commissioner’s consideration.

Your representations may include an application to add a replacement transport manager to your licence…

The traffic commissioner may consider granting a period of grace to enable you to find a replacement or whilst your nomination of a new transport manager is being considered, but you need to ask. The traffic commissioner is not obliged to grant a period of grace and is unlikely to do so unless there is evidence that a replacement will be recruited and that the licence requirements will be met in the meantime. An application for a period of grace must be in writing and set out what you are doing to resolve the matter. Guidance to request a period of grace whilst you recruit a new transport manager is attached at Annex B.

Annex B – Guidance for requesting a period of grace to satisfy the transport manager requirements

…There must be tangible evidence that a period of grace will be worthwhile, in other words, there are reasonable prospects that the mandatory requirement will be met before expiry of the specified period of grace.

…Please make any period of grace requests in writing and specify:

why your last transport manager has left and the circumstances.

what measures were taken to prevent loss of a suitable number of transport managers.

the period of time you seek for your period of grace.

how you will cover the duties of a transport manager during the period of grace

what action you are taking to meet the transport manager requirement as soon as possible…”

On 12 June 2024, Mr Rafiq emailed the OTC, in the following terms:

“In response to your letter dated 06/06/2024 requiring an early response from us regarding our Transport Manager.

Please note we are actively seeking a new Transport Manager due to our past Transport Manager retiring.

We have contacted relevant agencies and we are also actively searching job sites and the like.

We would like to assure you we will also be keeping up with our duties in regards to vehicle inspection and driver records.

We will update you as soon as we have hired somebody.

Can we please have a short period of grace while we find a suitable person.”

On 12 June 2024, a compliance team manager in the North East Compliance Team replied to Mr Rafiq’s email, stating:

“Thank you for your email, the content of which is noted. Please can you kindly confirm by return which agencies you have contacted and which job sites are being used in the search for a new transport manager? Please provide a response by no later than 27 June 2024.”

Mr Rafiq did not reply to that email. He explained at the hearing on 14 March 2025 that the email went into his inbox’s spam folder, and he therefore did not see it. Mr Rafiq explained that after receiving the Traffic Commissioner’s decision letter dated 03 July 2024, he searched his emails and located the email dated 12 June 2024 in his spam folder.

On 03 July 2024, the Traffic Commissioner revoked the operator’s licence. The decision letter stated:

“I refer to our letter dated 06.06.2024 notifying you that the Commissioner was considering revoking your operator’s licence. In the absence of a satisfactory response to this letter or a request for a public inquiry to be held the Traffic Commissioner has revoked your operator’s licence with effect from 03 July 2024 in accordance with the following grounds:

•

Under section 27(1)(a) of the [1995] Act, that the licence holder no longer meets the requirements of professional competence requirements in line with Section 13A(3)(a)(i) or 13A(3)(b).

…”.