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Operator who avoided Vosa banned for two years
Page 33
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AN OPERATOR WHO deliberately avoided Vosa officers by ignoring phone calls and failing to attend meetings has lost his licence and been disqualified from holding an 0-licence for two years.
Stafford-based Neil Harding, trading as Harding Transport Services, held an international licence for five vehicles and five trailers. He was called before West Midland Traffic Commissioner David Dixon.
The TC was told about: an S-marked prohibition; the use of an unauthorised operating centre; two vehicles having been seen without 0-licence discs or test certificates; one vehicle displaying an excise licence belonging to a motor car:and the other without any tax disc on show.
There had been seven immediate and three delayed prohibitions since 2003, and a trailer had been used while a prohibition was in force.
Another trailer had been returned to a hire company without informing the company that it was the subject of a prohibition. Vehicles had been operated illegally and in an unroadworthy condition. An examination of the tachograph charts highlighted a number of drivers' hours offences, possible false records, speeding, and missing mileage totalling 9,010km (C114 8 January).
The TC said the facts pointed to Harding being a poor operator — whether through incompetence or wilful neglect, however, he could not judge. There had been far too many roadworthiness prohibitions for the size of fleet, notably concerning defective brakes and tyres. He shared the opinion of the Vosa officers that Harding was deliberately avoiding them. The sequence of unanswered telephone calls and unattended meetings made it clear that was the case. Harding had demonstrated a wilful disregard for road safety and operator licensing.