ANC Leeds on probation
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11 • ANC (West Yorkshire)'s maintenance record has led to the company's 30-vehicle/10-trailer licence only being renewed for a probationary period of 12 months.
The Leeds-based company appeared at disciplinary proceedings before North Eastern Deputy Licensing Authority John Hampton.
Department of Transport vehicle examiner Andrew Barr gave evidence about two delayed prohibitions and a defect notice last October. He said that the condition of the trailers was poor and maintenance arrangements were complicated as there were four different maintenance contractors. Inspection records were not complete and showed that inspection periods had been over extended.
There was no system whereby drivers could report defects, said Barr; some drives were regularly taking their vehicles home and parking them in residential areas.
The DLA had pointed out that this was a breach of the company's licence conditions but ANC's commercial director Gary Wagstaff explained that immediate steps had been taken to stop the practice.
Security now ensured that vehicles were parked up and the keys were taken from the drivers. The trailers were hired in on an "as and when" basis, said Wagstaff. The poor condition of the trailers had been taken up with the hire company and the arrangement changed the company had now taken six trailers on longterm hire.
The hire company was responsible for all maintenance and ANC kept the maintenance records. This avoided the problem of the to-jug and froing of different trailers.
ANC had five tractive units of its own. The 17-tonne vehicles in the fleet were on contact hire, and the servicing of those vehicles was now handled by the contractor responsible for the tractors. The company's 15 7-5-tonners were stilt maintained by a different contractor, however.
The two sides of the business had now been separated, with the parcels side and freight side being controlled by different CPC holders. A wall chart had been brought into operation showing when each vehicle was due for inspection. Mileage was now checked weekly and entered into the vehicle file and a defect reporting system had been set up.
Renewing the licence, Hampton said that steps were clearly being taken to put the company's house in order, but he was limiting the duration of the licence because he wanted to know that the company had got it absolutely right during the next 12 months.