In our previous blog “another day, another licence revoked – how you can avoid it” we gave pointers about how the unfortunate company who had their licence revoked could have avoided getting in the mess they were, this blog looks at how you can comply without breaking the bank or end up pulling your hair out!
So how can you comply?
It’s simple, to comply all you have to do is follow the rules….. it really is that simple if you know the rules to start with.
Here’s what we recommend to get on and stay on the right side of the law.
Get yourself a proper Transport Manager or get yourself up to date and qualified. It will pay off in the long run, I promise! As your business grows a qualified transport manager becomes invaluable. There are two ways to do this, become qualified through a transport manager course or hire a transport manager.
Know the undertakings inside and out, back to front and adhere to them!! It’s essential to keeping out of trouble and remaining compliant. It’s up to you how little or much you want to spend doing this, you can either subscribe to a membership organisation which can be expensive where you can pay additional fees on top of your membership to attend seminars on legislation and purchase books to help you OR you can keep it low cost, get out of the grey area and purchase a complete compliance manual which tells you everything you need to put in place and gives you the documents to do it. You can also subscribe to websites such as commercial motor, DVSA moving on, VOSA publications etc. to receive the latest information. On top of this you can attend refreshers each year which are relatively low cost and act as proof to the TC that you are doing continuous professional development.
Self- Audit. Do this on a regular basis, now you can pay for an outside company to come in and carry out an audit and I thoroughly recommend you do this at least every two years but in between those audits a self-auditing system can be invaluable. It’s a low cost way to ensure your organisation is complying in all areas relating to the operator licence. A self-audit pack comes with everything you need to carry out a thorough check on your business and includes all the paperwork and documents you need to produce an audit report to keep on file, again proof to the TC that you are adhering to the undertakings.
Training. It’s invaluable; all staff within your organisation should be trained for their roles. Each driver should be given an induction and written instructions of what’s required of them in their role, this should include everything such as daily walk-round checks etc. Giving staff written instruction through drivers handbook etc. acts as proof that they have received clear instruction and also works as a guide should they need to refer back to. Training is also a great way of showing compliance; you are proving that you have taken steps to ensure your staff are fully trained. It can also be invaluable in cases of corporate manslaughter if, god forbid, an accident was to occur at your workplace. You can produce drivers handbooks yourself or for a small fee have an organisation like ourselves produce them for you.
So there you go, with these simple steps you can remain compliant. We can of course help you with every one of them and we can keep it low cost….your starting point is to have a look round our site and then I recommend having a free consultation with one of our experts. It gives you the opportunity to receive free advice, in the strictest confidence of course and it will help us, help you stay compliant.
As I said in the “another day, another licence revoked – how you can avoid it” The cost of non-compliance almost always outweighs the cost of complying in the first place.