Anyone who has had the misfortune to watch daytime television will soon discover it is full of adverts for wills and funeral plans, unsurprisingly no one mentions what happens to your Operators Licence should someone die.

First of all, the Traffic Commissioner is very sympathetic when this happens and although you do need to sort things out, you do have some leeway and you don’t need to deal with this immediately.

If you are a Standard Licence holder and the person you have lost is the Transport Manager then you will need to nominate a replacement on the licence.

The main thing people forget is what is called the entity holding the licence, is it a Sole Trader? Partnership? or Limited Company?

Sole Trader

If you hold the licence as a sole trader the Operator Licence must be revoked, as there’s no legal entity left to hold it.

Partnership

If your business operates as a partnership without a correctly drafted formal agreement, adding or removing a partner automatically dissolves the existing partnership, meaning the legal entity holding the Operator Licence no longer exists and the licence must be revoked.

If you have a properly drafted partnership agreement that allows for partners to join or leave without dissolving the partnership, the situation changes. In this case, you simply need to notify the Office of the Traffic Commissioner within 28 days of the change — and the licence remains valid.

Limited Company

You need to notify the Office of the Traffic Commissioner within 28 days of the change — and the licence remains valid.

It’s a good idea to be prepared, with everything else happening, worrying about your Operator’s licence is the last thing you want to do.