Attentions of VI force haulier to quit transport
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• The burden of running a transport firm has become too much for one SouthCoast haulier, who is leaving the transport business for goad. Kenneth Watherstone, director and transport manager of Contract Lifting Services in Emsworth, claims he is being hounded out of the industry by over-zealous enforcement authorities.
Watherstone reports that after 14 years of troublefree operating, his company was involved in two bridgebashing incidents during 1997. The offending drivers were dismissed, but now, he claims, the Vehicle Inspectorate is "crawling all over the company".
"I know what's going to happen now," he says. "I'll be called up in front of the LA and have my licence cut. Enough is enough." Watherstone says he should not be expected to take responsibility for his drivers' every mistake, from speeding to failing to complete a tachograph centrefield.
The £1 .5m-turnover, 12vehicle company is now up for sale as a going concern. If no buyer is found, 24 staff will lose their jobs.
"They're a smashing team," says Watherstone, "but I don't want to be their policeman."