HGV drivers have been warned by the DVLA that it will no longer accept medical reports from Doctors on Wheels, raising concerns that thousands of HGV drivers could be behind the wheel but unfit to drive.
The DVLA’s warning follows police raids on the firm’s offices in Swindon, Leicester and Huddersfield last week as part of a trading standards investigation.
The investigation, which is being headed up by Swansea’s Trading Standards team, was triggered by claims that D4 medicals were not being completed properly by Doctors on Wheels, with unhealthy drivers being passed as fit to drive.
A D4 is required for category C licence holders and comprises a medical and sight assessment.
Doctors on Wheels operates a mobile service across the country providing D4 medicals for HGV drivers.
These are undertaken in the back of the company’s fleet of vans.
According to Companies House the directors of Doctors on Wheels are Beth and Jayne Eburne. Andrew and Steven Eburne are listed as persons with significant control at the business with the former owning more than a 50% stake in the company and the latter listed as owning more than 25% of the total shares of the company.
The company’s registered address in Leicester is shared by J Coates (HGV Services), an HGV driver training company also owned by Andrew Eburne and Steven Eburne.
An employee at Doctors on Wheels declined to discuss why the company was raided but told motortransport.co.uk that whilst the company is not carrying out any D4 medicals at the moment it is “ hoping to resume D4 tests once everything is resolved”.
Asked how many D4 medicals the company carries out annually the employee said he did not have an accurate figure to hand but estimated it at “thousands”.
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Despite the numbers of D4 medical checks carried out by Doctor on Wheels, DVLA told motortransport.co.uk this week it will only be declining all D4 medicals conducted by Doctor on Wheels submitted to DVLA on or after 20 June.
Asked what DVLA intends to do about those drivers who submitted D4 medicals from doctors on Wheels before that date, a spokeswoman said: “Whilst the investigation is ongoing we cannot comment any further.”
Motortransport.co.uk understands that the DVLA was sent evidence of fraudulent medicals carried out by Doctors on Wheels in late 2018, including a number of TrustPilot reviews of the company, claiming that the medicals were cursory.
One claimed the medical was carried out by female staff who signed off the D4 using a signature stamp from a male doctor.
The agency has also written to trade associations asking them to warn their members of the situation.
In a statement sent to trade associations including the RHA this week it said: “If any applications are received at DVLA on or after 20 June 2019, they will not be accepted, and a new application will need to be submitted.
“This only applies to applications received on or after 20 June 2019, and we expect these numbers to be very low. “
“We will prioritise any applications received by those who need to resubmit another D4 as a result of these investigations. Please note we cannot reimburse any fees paid for the D4 medical report to be completed.”
The RHA is urging members not to use Doctors on Wheels for D4 medical reports and said it fully supports the DVLA action.
RHA head of licensing and infrastructure policy, Tom Coates, said: “RHA is extremely concerned about this situation and is liaising with DVLA. We hoped it will be rseolved promptly and we have alerted RHA members to this situation.”
Dr. Grant Charlesworth-Jones, medical director of D4Drivers, which provides medicals for HGV drivers, said: “It is hugely important that these D4 medical examinations are carried out by bone fide companies using fully qualified doctors, particularly as these companies can be dealing with thousands of HGV drivers a year. I cannot stress enough the need to use a reputable and trusted medical provider.
"One only has to look at the Glasgow bin lorry incident in 2014 - when the driver, who had lied about his fitness to drive, collapsed at the wheel killing six people and injuring 15 others - to know how important is to ensure HGV drivers are fully fit to drive these vehicles."
