Traffic Commissioner Preliminary Hearings — what is the risk to your business?

What is a preliminary hearing?

Preliminary hearings are a type of regulatory hearing in front of the Traffic Commissioner. They are convened when the Traffic Commissioner has concerns over how your business has been operating its vehicles, but when those concerns are, for the moment, confined to a relatively narrow area.

A common misconception is that a Traffic Commissioner’s preliminary hearing is a fairly low-level matter. Whilst most directors and transport managers will readily appreciate the seriousness of a Traffic Commissioner’s public inquiry hearing, there can be a feeling that a preliminary hearing is more akin to a short administrative meeting with the regulator, at which any minor areas of concern can be easily ironed out.

The difference between preliminary hearings and public inquiries

Unfortunately, this would be very wrong. To better understand why, it can be helpful to compare Traffic Commissioner preliminary hearings with Traffic Commissioner public inquiries.

As can be seen from the table, in almost all material respects, a Traffic Commissioner’s preliminary hearing is exactly the same as a Traffic Commissioner’s public inquiry and should be treated as such. The only main difference is that, at a preliminary hearing stage, the Traffic Commissioner cannot revoke, suspend or curtail your company’s licence or disqualify directors. This is cold comfort however, as the Commissioner can instead decide to escalate the matter to a full public inquiry hearing if they remain dissatisfied.

Why have I been called to a preliminary hearing?

Unsurprisingly, there are many reasons why a company, its directors and its transport managers can be called to a preliminary hearing. These include but are not limited to:

• a recent bridge strike involving a company vehicle
• an unsatisfactory DVSA maintenance investigation or desk based assessment
• a prohibition notice (PG9) issued to a company vehicle during a roadside stop or fleet inspection
• concerns over your transport managers, and whether they are exercising continuous and effective control over the fleet and drivers
• a failure to declare convictions, material changes, or matters which could affect the company’s good repute
• a high level of MOT failures
• drivers hours offending.

As with any regulatory proceedings, thorough preparation and legal support is crucial to a successful outcome. What can at first blush appear to be a relatively simple, single-issue concern can develop in the course of proceedings into a far wider areas of exposure as compliance records are scrutinised and witnesses questioned.

The last chance

In summary, a Traffic Commissioner’s preliminary hearing is a company’s very last chance to satisfy the regulator that any shortcomings have been addressed, and to close down proceedings without further escalation. It is of course important not to squander this opportunity.  We have been involved in many cases in which a vehicle operator entered a preliminary hearing ill-prepared and without legal support, only for the hearing to go badly wrong and for the Traffic Commissioner to escalate the case to a full Inquiry hearing.

At Weightmans, our specialist transport regulatory lawyers have been representing company directors and transport managers at Traffic Commissioner public inquiries and preliminary hearings for years.