Haulier 'sick of the system' is banned • A director
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of a North Yorkshire haulage company, who told a Traffic Commissioner that he was sick of the whole operator licensing system has been banned from holding an 0-licence for a year.
The 20-vehicle/25-trailer licence held by Patrick Brompton-based Bedale Transport had been revoked at a previous hearing which the company failed to attend. This followed an unsatisfactory maintenance record and a number of convictions.
George Lyon told North Eastern Deputy TC Brian Horner he had been in haulage all his life. He had a wealth of experience and knew what he was talking about. The final nail in the coffin was when a vehicle was issued with a prohibition for a missing mudflap.
Why, he asked, should he and his wife be disqualified for a few prohibitions and overloading convictions, over which they had no control?
Horner pointed out that most of the convictions related to the use of untaxed vehicles: there had only been two overloading convictions, one in 1993 and the other in 1996.
After Horner had referred to the 26 prohibition notices imposed on the company's vehicles in the past five years, Lyon said one vehicle had been given a prohibition for a worn track rod end a week after it had passed its annual test. They could not tell him that a track rod end wore in a week.
Lyon claimed he had been victimised for operating older vehicles. In the past six months, during which the company had operated a fleet of new vehicles, none had been stopped in a check, he said.
He told the Deputy TC he was sick of the whole system and had had enough of it.