Technique tacho trouble • The duration of the licence held
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by Alan Adair and Anthony Westwood, trading as Haulage Technique, has been cut and their HGV licences have been suspended for a week following a series of hours and tacho offences. The partners of the Maghull, Merseyside company appeared at a Manchester disciplinary inquiry before North Western Traffic Commissioner Martin Albu.
In July they admitted a series of offences before Wigan Magistrates, including permitting drivers to commit hours offences and the falsification of tachograph charts. They were fined £2,380 (CM 16-22 July).
Westwood said they had held a licence since 1991. In the early days they worked for a customer in the South and relied on other haulage companies in the North-West for outward work. This pattern had since changed and they now had 40 customers of their own throughout the country. They had much greater control than in the past and were setting up procedures to achieve BS5750.
Westwood said he had stopped driving and now worked full time in the traffic office. He admitted that he had falsified tachograph charts by using false names. Asked about finance, Westwood said the accounts were with the accountants as they were in the process of changing to a limited company. Philip Farrimond, of Orrell Tachographs, said that since he had set up a system for the firm, analysing its charts every three to four weeks, there had been a vast improvement.
Cutting the duration of the licence to expire at the end of March, instead of in 1996, Albu said he would want to see the accounts when a fresh application was made.