ig An apparent failure of drivers employed by Carshalton, Surrey-based J
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Bray (Construction) to report defects has resulted in one vehicle being suspended from the company's three-vehicle licence for a week.
The company appeared before South Eastern & Metropolitan Traffic Commissioner Brigadier Michael Turner at an Eastbourne disciplinary inquiry.
Vehicle examiner Paul Wright said one immediate and one delayed prohibition had been imposed on the company's vehicles since July 1997, resulting in warning letters about its maintenance arrangements in November 1997 and June 1998. He examined two vehicles during a maintenance investigation in February and issued two defect notices. He considered that a number of the defects would have been obvious to the drivers. There appeared to be a number of gaps in the Inspection records.
For the company, Jonathan Lawton said although some records were alleged to be missing, in fact all the records were available. However, the commercial garage undertaking the inspections accepted that they might not all have been at the company's premises at the time of the vehicle examiner's visit. The site work undertaken was such that many of the defects could have occurred, and probably did, during the working day.
Managing director Coleman Quirk said that following that visit they had Instituted a system of driver training to try and ensure there were no further problems with the driver defect reporting system.
The Commissioner said a proper system where drivers checked over their vehicles and reported any defects was vital. If drivers did not report faults, serious defects could arise between inspections.
He was much more concerned about the company's inability to get drivers to carry out their daily checks properly. Such checks were essential.