A 'chaotic' company running bus services for Hagley High School has had its licence revoked.

Thandi Coaches (Red), which runs a number of services for the non-Worcestershire pupils at the Catholic secondary school, will lose its licence from January 1.

The Traffic Commissioner has made the decision because of the company’s lack of money and serious failures in managing and recording the drivers’ work.

The firm can keep running services until midnight on New Year's Eve to give clients time to make alternative arrangements.

Hagley High School declined to comment impact on students.

The formal decision is that Thandi Transport Manager Amardeep Thandi has lost his ‘good repute’ and is disqualified for a year beginning January 1.

The public inquiry stressed he had not been dishonest, but it found that the financial situation of the company was not strong enough and he was ‘chaotic’ in the way he managed.

In fact, he did not even understand the computer analysis system he was supposed to use, which meant there was almost no oversight of drivers’ hours.

The tribunal findings included:

• Drivers were assigned to tours which they were not legally able to carry out

• Drivers drove without tacograph cards, undetected by the company

• Drivers’ frequent trips to and from coaches away from their base were not recorded

• Mr Thandi failed to educate or discipline drivers whose infringements were detected

The findings said: “Mr Thandi fell far short of the standards and performance expected of a reputable transport manager.

“Indeed, he presided over a chaotic operation in which no real control of drivers’ hours was being exercised at all.”

Solicitor James Backhouse, for the firm, said it had been hit hard by Covid and asked for 12 months for the company to reach the £145,950 necessary to support a licence for 32 vehicles.

But the tribunal was not convinced by the financial evidence supplied or claims that Mr Thandi had simplified routes and improved his management of the operation.