A public inquiry is a formal tribunal hearing where a traffic commissioner decides the future of a licence. Most operators only ever see one from a distance, which is a shame, because the operators who understand how inquiries work are the ones who never end up in front of one.
The traffic commissioners’ own guide to public inquiries sets out three main types. Application inquiries decide whether a new licence or variation should be granted, hearing evidence from the applicant and any valid opposition. Operating centre reviews, which apply only to goods licences, examine whether a site remains suitable, usually after complaints. And regulatory inquiries are the ones that keep transport managers awake: the future of an existing operation, with evidence from the operator and usually from DVSA or other enforcement bodies.
Inquiries are normally held in person, like a court or tribunal hearing, though a commissioner can direct a remote hearing in some cases, and individual witnesses often give evidence by video. The commissioner may also be assisted by a financial assessor where money is in question.
One protection worth knowing: a traffic commissioner must hold a public inquiry if they are considering regulatory action against an existing licence, or against a transport manager’s good repute or professional competence, and the operator or transport manager requests a hearing. You do not have to accept a decision on the papers.
The letter calling you to inquiry explains why it is being held, the legislation it is called under, and the evidence the commissioner will consider. It goes to the correspondence address recorded on the licence, which is one more reason that address must be real and monitored.
Notice periods matter. For an existing goods licence or application, at least 21 days’ notice is given; for a transport manager inquiry, at least 28 days; passenger licences get 14. These can be shortened only by agreement. The letter usually comes with directions, commonly requiring maintenance records and drivers’ hours evidence to be sent in advance. Take those deadlines seriously: documents that arrive late may simply not be taken into account.
Three different groups can put a case in front of the commissioner. Statutory objectors, including local and planning authorities, the police and certain trade associations and unions, can object to a goods licence application on grounds ranging from repute and financial standing to maintenance arrangements, drivers’ hours compliance, professional competence and the suitability of the operating centre. Representors are neighbours: owners and occupiers of nearby land who say their use or enjoyment of it would be harmed by an HGV operating centre, on environmental grounds only. And anyone can complain at any time about an authorised operating centre, on environmental or road safety grounds, though unless the operator is working outside the licence terms the commissioner generally acts at the five-yearly review date attached to the licence.
For a sole trader or partnership, the owner or partners attend. A company or LLP sends at least one director; sending a senior manager instead needs the commissioner’s prior permission and written board authorisation, without which the case may proceed without you being heard. Failure to attend at all lets the commissioner decide the case in your absence, and they do.
Adjournments exist but are not a tactic. Hearings are not usually adjourned without a good and compelling reason, and the commissioner can ask for evidence: a holiday must have been booked before the call-up letter, and a medical certificate is not automatically accepted, especially if it says you are unfit for work rather than unfit to attend.
You can be represented by counsel or a solicitor as of right; anyone else, including a transport consultant, speaks only with the commissioner’s advance agreement. There is no legal aid and no duty adviser, and asking to adjourn on the day because you now want representation rarely lands well. If you want help, arrange it as soon as the call-up letter arrives, and check your representative actually knows operator licensing: asking them to explain the Senior Traffic Commissioner’s Statutory Documents is a fair test. No costs are awarded either way.
At the heavy end, the commissioner can revoke the licence, suspend it, or curtail it by removing vehicles or operating centres. Below that sit formal warnings and undertakings recorded against the licence. For transport managers, the sanction is personal: a finding against good repute or professional competence can end a career as a nominated manager, because repute lost at one inquiry must be declared at the next.
The deciding factor is usually not the defect that triggered the inquiry but what the evidence says about the operation’s systems. Commissioners distinguish between an operator who had a failure inside a working system, fixed it and can prove it, and an operator whose paperwork shows the system never really existed.
Read the call-up letter twice and list every allegation and every document direction with its deadline. Diarise the notice period backwards. Pull the records before anyone touches them: maintenance files, PMI sheets, defect reports, tachograph data and analysis, drivers’ hours records, training records. Get advice immediately, from a solicitor or consultant with genuine licensing experience. And decide early who attends and who speaks, because the commissioner will expect the people who actually run the operation to answer for it.
The operators who come out of inquiries with their licences intact almost always share one trait: they treated the call-up letter as the start of a project, not the end of the world. The ones who lose are usually the ones who spent the notice period hoping.