Mistakes meant cut in licence
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Three immediate prohibition notices and three variation notices, all imposed on the same vehicle, have led to the hcerce held by Oldbury-based Thomas Jarvis being cut from four to two vehicles.
Jarvis, who trades as Teejay Transport, had been called before West Midland Traffic Commissioner David Dixon at a Birmingham disciplinary inquiry.
Vehicle examiner Anthony Hill said the latest of the prohibitions, which was issued in November, had been endorsed as showing a significant maintenance failure. In January he inspected the one vehicle then being operated and issued it with a defect notice for oil leaks and an electrical fault. He was told that the other vehicles on the licence were off the road.
Inspection records had been of an unacceptable type. Since Jarvis had changed his maintenance contractor the inspection records had been satisfactory, but there was no written driver defect reporting system.
Jarvis told the inquiry that the period between inspections had been reduced from six weeks to four. The prohibited vehicle was no longer in use and there had been no problems with the vehicle presently in use. The prohibitions looked worse than they really were, he added.
Jarvis agreed with the TC that the prohibited vehicle had been well used and that parts had perhaps not been changed when they should have been. He believed the vehicle he was now using was in good condition, but realised he had made mistakes. He had tightened up on drivers' checks and monthly inspections, and felt they were doing the job better than 12 months ago.
Cutting the licence authorisation, the TC noted that the second vehicle had had no prohibitions in the five years Jarvis had been running it. He felt Jarvis had taken
the problems seriously and had taken steps to put matters right, so he was taking a fairly lenient view.
Warning that he wanted a significant period without prohibitions before considering any increase in the licence authorisation, the TC ordered a maintenance investigation next January.