A Somerset haulage firm is facing the loss of its operator’s licence after Western Traffic Commissioner Kevin Rooney found its director repeatedly used a former employee’s digital tachograph card to conceal drivers’ hours offences.
The decision follows a public inquiry in Bristol led by Rooney who concluded that TMA Haulage had deliberately falsified tachograph records over a prolonged period, describing one incident as “a cynical and fraudulent act for commercial gain”.
DVSA launched its investigation after receiving intelligence that drivers at the company were using a second driver’s card to avoid taking mandatory breaks.
Although driver card downloads showed few infringements, analysis of vehicle unit data revealed multiple occasions where vehicles were driven using a card belonging to former employee Bradley Baulf.
At the public inquiry, company director, transport manager and driver Andrew Tucker admitted driving using Baulf’s card on three occasions during June and July 2025 and on two further occasions in April 2026.
The admissions contradicted claims made in an interview under caution with DVSA in October 2025, in which Tucker denied driving with Baulf’s card and claimed the former employee had been behind the wheel.
Rooney found Tucker had fabricated evidence during that interview and continued offending even after DVSA’s investigation had begun.
He said: “The DVSA intervention was a clear opportunity for Mr Tucker to turn the corner and operate compliantly. He did not do so but chose to continue to use Mr Baulf’s card.”
The Commissioner rejected Tucker’s explanation that he had retained the card after discovering it in a vehicle because he had been unable to contact its owner.
He also dismissed claims that personal pressures had contributed to the offences.
Rooney highlighted one incident which he said was of particular concern, when Tucker, having driven for four hours and 27 minutes, removed his own card before continuing his shift, using Baulf’s card without taking the legally required 45-minute break. The total journey covered more than 200km.
Rooney said: “That was a cynical and fraudulent act for commercial gain.”
The inquiry also examined repeated failures to make manual tachograph entries. Tucker claimed he did not know how to complete them, but Rooney rejected that evidence, finding the omissions were deliberate rather than the result of poor knowledge.
“I find that he lied to me whilst giving evidence,” the Commissioner said.
The written decision states that TMA Haulage had “deliberately and determinedly operated outside the rules governing tachographs and driving times and rest periods” and that the conduct warranted severe regulatory action.
Rooney said he had no confidence Tucker would comply in future.
“I do not trust Mr Tucker not to offend again at all,” he wrote. “I find that he is unhappy that he has been found out but that does not mean that he has changed his ways.”
Tucker has been disqualified indefinitely from acting as a transport manager after losing his good repute.
His HGV vocational entitlement will also be revoked from 24 July 2026, with a 12-month disqualification.
The company’s standard international operator’s licence has been curtailed immediately from five authorised vehicles to four.
The licence will then be revoked on 6 October unless the business is fundamentally restructured.
To avoid revocation, Tucker must step down as a statutory director, reduce his shareholding to no more than 50%, and demonstrate that control of the business has passed to new management acceptable to the Traffic Commissioner.
Rooney said that, in its current form, the company could not be trusted to operate compliantly.
Considering whether the operator deserved to be put out of business Rooney said: “As currently structured, the answer is yes, very definitely,”
Rooney said that, despite the operator maintaining satisfactory vehicle maintenance standards and re-engaging compliance consultant Barry Hood ahead of the inquiry, he said these mitigating factors were outweighed by sustained tachograph fraud, dishonesty during the investigation and continued offending after regulatory intervention.
The inquiry also resulted in the indefinite revocation of former employee Bradley Baulf’s vocational entitlement after he failed to attend either a DVSA interview or his driver conduct hearing.
Although the Commissioner said he could not determine Baulf’s knowledge of the misuse of his driver card, he concluded Baulf was no longer fit to hold vocational entitlement and would have to appear before a Traffic Commissioner should he wish to regain it.
