The conviction and imprisonment of Matthew Gordon, the owner of the business in the Bath lorry trial was just the late confirmation that directors are personally legally responsible for the Operators Licence and the safe operation of the vehicles in a similar way the breach of  Health & Safety regulations has been for many years. 

A Director’s dilemma

Whilst personally responsible for compliance and standards, with multiple urgent and important issues forcing their way in and hijacking good intentions it is difficult sometimes to maintain control and undertake the due diligence required. All too often you are “waiting” for the incident which will force the failing to be exposed. 

Why not hire external independent auditors?

For many, it is simply a matter of time. With the best will in the world auditing does not fire up the imagination and it is always important but not urgent. By having an experienced auditor this is their only focus and they have no internal relationships to cloud their judgement.

Knowledge - Directors have a wide range of responsibilities over a number of disciplines and you cannot be expert in them all. An external auditor has expertise in transport-related areas such as Operator Licence compliance and Drivers Hours and will keep up to date with changes in regulations and best practice

Independent - Being external, we are free from internal politics, relationships and agendas. The relationship is with you, the director commissioning the audit, the desire is to accurately and honestly report on what is seen, not what teams want you to see.

Credible - As audit specialists in the field our reports have been used as evidence to the Traffic Commissioner and our staff have been expert witnesses in Public Inquiries. All our audits conform to the Senior Traffic Commissioner guidance on audit and are updated based on our experiences.

The cost of hiring a specialist auditor is insignificant compared to the cost of failure in term of damage to reputation fines, attending a public inquiry and not least of all the personal stress.