Lending Operator Licences

In a recent public inquiry into an application for an operating licence, the Traffic Commissioner for the West Midlands found a catalogue of offences by several individuals and companies, many of them related to the lending of operator licences.

After a detailed hearing, the Traffic Commissioner, Mr Nick Denton, refused an application from Centro Waste Ltd after hearing evidence of how they had been operating vehicles without a licence for some time.

This company had been operating, on the face of it, as a broker, taking bookings for skips and assigning them to sub-contractors, among them Eric Gowland trading as Dial A skip.

Centro Waste claimed to have had had an arrangement with Eric Gowland under which Mr Gowland had run vehicles belonging to Centro under his licence. The arrangement had not been documented, nor had any invoices been issued or any money changed hands, because they claimed “he was doing his own work and tipping in my yard and we set one off against the other.”

In reality, Mr Gowland is 92 years old, lives in the South West and has not operated vehicles for many years.

This was not the only deception by Centro Waste Ltd.

In his decision, Mr Denton said “the HGVs run from the Nechells Lane premises look like a Centro Waste operation, quack like a Centro Waste Ltd operation and waddle like a Centro Waste Ltd operation. I find that they are indeed a Centro Waste Ltd operation.

“Because Centro Waste Ltd has operated vehicles without a licence, and because its director Colin Wilson has woven a tissue of lies to try to conceal this, I find that neither director nor company are of the required good repute to hold a standard national licence.”

Further details can be found here.