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INDUSTRY NEWS
Page 10
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Tribunal says new TC Vehicle hn tosnee
ban
must hear ban case
as by Michael Jewell
Leading West Country haulier William C Hockin has won the first stage of its appeal against the loss of its Operator's Licence and the one-year 0-licence ban on its managing director The Barnstaple-based firm appeared before Western Traffic Commissioner Philip Brown in June following a string of hours and tachograph offences. It holds a licence for 44 vehicles and 70 trailers.
But now the Transport Tribunal has quashed the revocation and disqualification orders made against the company and its owner William Hockin: it has decided that the case should be reconsidered by a different IC, Brown had concluded that Hockin had lost both his repute and professional competence after hearing that many of the company's drivers had removed fuses from tachographs. He took account of some 280 offences involving over 20 drivers CM30 May-6 June).
Appearing before the Tribunal, Chris Over for Hockin, pointed out that the company had been operating for many years: Hockin had been in charge since 1974.
The company had an immaculate fleet and there had been no problems until 1997, he added.
The loss of repute would close the business and put 40 people on the dole, Over told the tribunal.
He contended that the TO had made no actual findings of fact and had failed to conduct a proper balancing exercise. arguing that repute must be determined at the date of the hearing.
As far as the drivers' hours offences were concerned, while Hockin might have analysed the pattern of trips and made changes where appropriate, it was far from obvious that the routeing and timings were to blame.
Querying what Hockin had done to lose his repute, Over said that during the Dukes Transport appeal the Transport Tribunal had indicated that an operator must do something wrong or negligently to lose his repute.
Over claimed that after a public inquiry involving 2/ days of hotly contested issues, there had not been a single formal finding of fact.
He suggested that a TC needed to go further than sim ply saying the drivers' convic tions were "serious"—loss of repute depended on how an offence had been committed.
Setting aside the revocation and disqualification. the Tribunal agreed that there was a lack of reasoning in the decision.