anned director has links with Pall-Ex member firm
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• by Melanie Hammond Further evidence that vetting procedures at Pall-Ex (UK) are seriously flawed emerged this week when Commercial Motor discovered that the man behind the latest South Wales Pall-Ex depot is a disqualified director.
TWT is the fifth company in four years to handle operations for the Pall-Ex network in the South Wales region. Company founder Trevor Taylor appears to be running the company despite being declared unfit to act as a director until August 2002. Companies House lists the directors of TWT as accountant Michael Jones and Trevor Taylor's wife, Susan. Trevor Taylor resigned his directorship in February 1999 shortly after the disqualification order.
However, when CM called TVIT last week about trailers passed on to TWT from former Pali-Ex member SWF Warehousing, we were told we would have to speak to Trevor Taylor. He was in France for the week and we were told there was no-one else we could speak to.
When CM contacted TWT again this week we were referred to manager Dennis O'Sullivan who said: "You need to speak with the proprietor of the business and he is in France at the moment."
We called again and this time asked to speak to Michael Jones. We were told: "I'm not sure what Mike Jones' number is but it would be Trevor you would need to speak to."
When CM contacted Pall-Ex this week we were told that director Hilary Sharpies was unavailable for questions because of the school holidays. Last week CM questioned Pall-Ex's vetting of new network members after former South Wales member SWF Distribution went into liquidation. We found that one of its directors, Anthony Lewis, had failed companies behind him.
In the past four years the membership has gone from Logicline to PSW Logistics to SWF Distribution to SWF Warehousing to TWT. In each case Mark Waite, a director of the original member, Logicline, who is now banned as a director until July 2001, moved with the membership to run traffic operations. He is currently employed by TWT.
Last week, Sharpies told CM she ended SWF Warehousing's membership as quickly as she could after other members made her aware of problems. She insisted that Pall-Ex operates strict quality controls and members are thoroughly vetted.
Last summer Sharpies told the press: "We do our research. Before we talk to them [prospective members] we surreptitiously talk to their customers about their service levels. We carefully study their financial stability as well. We don't take financial chances."
Commenting on Mark Waite, Sharpies said: "He's only an employee—he's in charge of trunks and dispatching. He's not in control of running the business in any shape or form; we wouldn't condone that." III See news analysis, page 8.