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Operators can't afford to take anything on trust
Page 28
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AFTER READING about the recent incident concerning a Greenford operator and a New Zealand employee's invalid licence I recalled shuddering with relief when our company narrowly missed a similar situation.
We were looking for a Class 2 driver and were offered one by a large UK agency. However the driver was a Zimbabwean and held only that country's version of a Class 1 licence, The agency assured us that everything was legal and above board and in fact they had been hiring out this individual to another company for the previous 10 months.
However, we felt it was our responsibility to double check, and this is where it gets farcical: our regional RHA office did not know if he was legal to drive and neither did the RHA international section at its head office.
So then we decided to ask the DVLA International Licensing section in Swansea.
They told us that Zimbabwean HGV licences were not recognised in the UK and therefore we would have been responsible for employing an unlicensed driver with all the repercussions this offence carries in this country Once again the innocent operator is in the firing line as a result of the negligence and ignorance of others.
Brian Brennan