Two out of four are suspended
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• A South Yorkshire animal waste contractor has had two out of its four vehicles suspended for a week with a warning that further overloading offences will put the company's licence at risk.
Penistone-based JG Pears was before North Eastern Deputy Traffic Commissioner Patrick Mulvenna at a Sheffield disciplinary inquiry because of the company's maintenance record and 16 convictions for overloading. It held a licence for four vehicles and six trailers.
Vehicle examiner Anthony Fielding said the number of prohibitions issued showed the inspections were not at all thorough. He examined two vehicles and one trailer in July and found them to be in a satisfactory condition. However, he hoped the brakes on these modern vehicles were being regularly manually adjusted.
Director Jeffrey Pears had told him that following the issue of a prohibition he had felt that despite the picture shown by the inspection records the vehicles were in an unsatisfactory condition. He had therefore dismissed two fitters and he had made arrangements to have all the vehicles given a thorough inspection by the main Volvo agents.
For the company, Gary Hodgson said maintenance was now contracted out to a commercial garage and a fitter was employed to carry out audit checks on the work done by the garage.
One of the prohibitions had related to a lost wheel. The wheelnuts had now been fitted with markers. The drivers had been issued with "toffee" hammers and shown how to use them to check the wheelnuts.
Pears said the inspection period had been reduced from six to four weeks and a nil driver defect reporting system introduced. The problem with overloading was that the skips were loaded by customers at factories and slaughter houses, said Pears. He had written to all the company's customers asking them to try and ensure that the skips were not overloaded and the drivers had been issued with a booklet showing the nearest public weighbridge to each customer's premises.
Making it clear that there must be no further overloading offences, Mulvenna said persistent offences could well bring the company's repute into question.
The problems had been recognised and action had been taken, said Hodgson. He pointed out that any curtailment would create problems as it would be difficult to get anyone else to carry the animal waste.
Curtailing the licence to two vehicles and three trailers for a week, Mulvenna said the company's record was unsatisfactory. However, he was satisfied that adequate corrective action had been taken on the maintenance side.
The number of overloading convictions was a matter of great concern but he was also satisfied that the action taken should prevent any recurrence.