Week's suspension for faulty truck
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The one-vehicle
Operator's Licence held by a Cumbrian company was suspended for a week after its truck was found to be in an unroadworthy and unsafe condition.
When Barrow-in-Furnessbased DCW Group appeared before North Western Traffic
Commissioner Patrick Mulvenna, vehicle examiner Brian Heyhurst said that when he examined the company's vehicle in January he issued an immediate prohibition for a sig
nificant maintenance failure. Four of the five defects related to brakes.
When the vehicle was produced for clearance four more defects were found.
Maintenance was carried out by a commercial garage. The agreed inspection period was eight weeks but only two inspections records were available for the whole of 1998.
Procurement manager Lee Ormandy said that the general manager had left suddenly in mid-1998. The procedures were not subsequently followed as the directors were not paperwork oriented. A new general manager had now been appointed and all the systems had been tightened up. The company was not a haulier and the vehicle was little used—last year it only averaged 44km a week.
Suspending the licence, and directing that the situation be reviewed In three months' time, the Deputy TC said that a repetition of the circumstances found by the vehi cle examiner would not be tolerated. The vehicle had been found to be in a condition that was particularly unroadworthy and unsafe.