TAO trials advert, scheme
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• A scheme that transfers responsibility for applying and advertising for an Operator's Licence from the applicant to the Traffic Area Office has gone on trial in the North.
The North Eastern and North Western Traffic Area Offices have launched a three-month trial of an experimental advertisement placement service.
Currently, all applicants for an 0-licence—or those wanting to vary an existing one—have to place an advert in a local newspaper. Under the new scheme applicants are given the option for the TAO to place the advert on their behalf at a cost of £125. The scheme is intended to save applicants time and trouble and take the uncertainty out of the application and advertisement process.
Last year 250 out of 5,000 total applicants (1 in 20) advertised applications wrongly in the northern traffic areas, incurring not only additional advertising costs but, in some cases, an extra application fee of £160.
The TAO says: "We think it's good value for money and we guarantee we'll get it right—if we don't we'll foot the bill to correct it."
The scheme follows recommendations made in the 1994 Curtis Review of TA0s.