Arvind Sedani, Pius Sedani and Vipul Sedani – all partners running the supermarket business – will not be allowed to run any vehicles until 26 September 2015, following an order by the region’s Traffic Commissioner, Nicholas Denton (pictured).
His decision follows a public inquiry last month (August 2015), which heard that the retailer had failed to several key vehicle licensing regulations.
An investigation by DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) revealed that: the business had failed to collect and check drivers’ hours and tachograph records; drivers had committed weekly rest offences; gaps between routine vehicle safety checks were excessive; and defects that should have been detected by drivers went unreported.
Additionally, prohibition notices had been served for overloaded vehicles; and premises in Ilford and Spitalfields had not been approved by the Traffic Commissioner.
“Both partners who gave evidence, Arvind and Pius Sedani, appeared to be hazy on the details of some of the measures taken to address the non-compliance, being too ready to offer the traffic manager as a panacea rather than taking charge themselves,” commented Denton.
“A culture of compliance needs to be instilled from the top: the partners can delegate functions but not responsibility.”
In reaching his decision to suspend the licence, the traffic commissioner noted that there had been no evidence of serious instances of driving over the hours and that an outside body had been engaged to analyse driver records and produce reports about infringements.
He warned the business that a reoccurrence of the problems reported by DVSA examiners would almost certainly result in the operating licence being revoked.