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Hockin wins at tribunal
Page 14
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Mike Jewell watches as William Hockin overturns revocation and bans.
PROMINENT DEVON haulage firm William C Hockin has clung on to its operators' licence following a successful appeal to the Transport Tribunal.
Proprietor William Hockin also had his two-year disqualification quashed and his wife, the other director of the Barnstaple firm, had her one-year ban overturned.
I iowever, the tribunal directed that the authorisation on the licence be reduced from 44 vehicles and 77 trailers to 20 vehicles and 36 trailers.
This is the second time the firm has successfully applied to the tribunal. Following its licence revocation in June last year for the use of three unauthorised operating centres and numerous tacho offences it appealed to the tribunal which ruled that the case should be reheard.
Then TC David Dixon, at a two-day public inquiry, made the further revocation and disqualilication orders, arguing that the scale of the tacho offences showed that the management had lost control of the firm's operations. He judged that it was too soon for the firm or Hockin's repute to have been regained.
The tribunal accepted that changes had been implemented over the past three years without any evidence of continued wrongdoing. However, it was concerned that Edward Matravers. who had himself been convicted of the falsification of tachograph records. continued to be employed in a supervisory role while William Hockin was still the nominated transport manager.
After receiving undertakings that the company would remove both men from their transport manager roles, the tribunal said it was satisfied that it was not proportionate to order revocation, although the good repute of both the company and William Hockin remained severely tarnished.
Cutting the licence, the tribunal concluded that some action was warranted because of the offences that had been committed.