Revoked a second time
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• Eastern Deputy Traffic Commissioner John Stevenson has revoked the licence held by Harwich-based Nicholas Pilbeam on grounds of repute and finance.
Pilbeam's five-vehicle fivetrailer international licence had previously been revoked by Traffic Commissioner Brigadier Compton Boyd, but the Transport Tribunal directed that the case be reconsidered because of procedural irregularities.
A number of convictions had been recorded against Pilbeam and his drivers, including taking insufficient weekly rest, making a false entry and failing to use tachographs. Since 1989 Pilbeam had been convicted of a series of offences involving failures to tax vehicles, failures to return void vehicle excise licences and taxing vehicles at the wrong rate of duty.. He had been ordered to pay fines, costs and back-duty totalling over £29,000. None of the convictions had been reported to the Commissioner.
John Cox, a prosecuting officer for the VRO, said that two further incidents were being investigated which could result in proceedings.
Pilbeam said he had gained absolutely nothing from the situation, which had cost him more than £100,000. He had started with one vehicle in 1986 and the business grew to a peak of 10 vehicles and 10 trailers in 1989 and 1990. He had too much work, not enough vehicles, an over generous bank manager, and very easy credit facilities from the vehicle dealer.
Vehicles were doubleshifted day and night, seven days a week, on lucrative fruit and vegetable work and he had been using any labour he could get hold of to get the jobs covered. Unfortunately, some of the labour used was not really up to the required standard.
There were late deliveries and damage to the fruit and vegetables and an accident in which a six-month-old vehicle was virtually written off: the fridge trailer and £80,000 worth of fruit and vegetables were written off. As a result, he lost the fruit and vegetable contract and a change of bank manager led to a reduction in his overdraft facilities.
The road tax suffered rather than vehicle maintenance, said Pilbeam; it was the easiest thing to do.
It was September 1991 before he finally got to grips with the situation, reducing the number of vehicles and getting cheaper vehicles. He had no overdraft facilities now and the bank account was kept in credit. Turnover was between £25,000 and £32,000 a month.
Holding that Pilbeam no longer met the requirement to be of good repute, Stevenson said he was not satisfied that Pilbeam would not resort to the same tactics if faced with similar problems in the future. It was also clear that he went nowhere near meeting EC requirements in relation to capital reserves for an international licence.