Public inquiries for bus and coach operators. Your records should show the fixes.

A public inquiry is a formal hearing in front of a Traffic Commissioner. For an operator called in over maintenance, the question is whether the PSV licence carries on as it is, carries on with conditions, is suspended or is revoked. Nobody is being sentenced. The commissioner is deciding whether you can be trusted to keep your vehicles safe from here on.

What the hearing is

The Traffic Commissioners publish a guide to public inquiries. The commissioner makes the decision, DVSA usually gives the evidence in a maintenance case, and the standard of proof is the civil one: more likely than not. For an existing PSV licence the call-up letter has to give at least 14 days’ notice. It says why the inquiry is being held and often lists documents to send in beforehand.

The powers sit in section 17 of the Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981. A commissioner can revoke or suspend a PSV licence, or attach conditions to it, on several grounds. For maintenance, the two that come up most are a prohibition issued against one of your vehicles and an undertaking on the licence that has not been kept. If the commissioner is thinking of acting against the licence and you ask for an inquiry, one has to be held first.

Behind all of it sits the promise you made when the licence was granted. Section 14ZC of the same Act requires the commissioner to be satisfied that you have adequate facilities or arrangements to keep your vehicles fit and serviceable. A maintenance inquiry is the commissioner checking that this is still true.

Why it matters for a PSV licence

The Senior Traffic Commissioner’s statutory guidance on decision making sets out the range. At the light end is a formal warning. Beyond that come curtailment, which on a PSV licence can mean a condition cutting the number of vehicles you may run, suspension and, at the far end, revocation. The transport manager’s repute can be looked at in the same hearing.

The same guidance explains what tips the balance. The core question is whether this operator can be trusted to comply in future. Findings are made as things stand on the day of the inquiry, so genuine improvements count, and changes already made with evidence behind them weigh in your favour. Promises made in the room carry less weight. Setting up a system is not enough on its own either: you are expected to check that it works, and to act on warning signs such as repeated prohibitions or test failures.

Where PSVault fits

PSVault cannot stop a commissioner calling you in. What it does is keep the kind of evidence the commissioner looks for, built up as the work gets done rather than gathered the week before.

• Problems found early. The maintenance investigation self-check runs DVSA’s own question set against your records and shows what would be marked down, and why.
• Actions with names and dates. Each finding can become an action with an owner, a due date and a status. The next self-check looks back at what was closed and what slipped.
• Prohibitions investigated. Each PG9 gets its own investigation linking the notice, the repair, the last safety inspection and that day’s walkaround, with any missing evidence listed.
• A history that stays whole. Mistakes are voided with a reason and a name, and the original stays on file. Your transport consultant can read all of it with a read-only login.

If you have already been called in, the same tools apply. Run the self-check against the examiner’s findings, set an action for each one, and let the record show the progress month by month.