Licence application was late
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• A Shropshire haulage company, which failed to submit its licence renewal application in time, has been warned that there is a big question mark over whether it will get a fresh licence.
Hudson's Telford, which is currently operating under interim authority, applied for a new national licence for seven vehicles and nine trailers at a Birmingham public inquiry.
For the company, Norman Carless said it had operated satisfactorily since receiving a serious warning at a public inquiry in July 1996 until September 1997, when a number of vehicles were found to be defective.
Managing director Eugene Hudson told the inquiry that they had trouble getting the right calibre of maintenance staff and they were now contracting the maintenance out.
West Midland Traffic Commissioner John Mervyn Pugh
said something had gone seriously wrong. Three prohibitions had been issued, endorsed as showing a significant maintenance failure, and the company was facing prosecution over two of those prohibitions
After the TC had said a letter from the company's accountants was not very satisfactory, Hudson said he believed the latest accounts would be ready within the next two or three weeks. The maintenance problems had not been due to lack of finance, he added; they had not realised they had a problem until the roadside checks.
Adjourning the hearing until 20 March, Mervyn Pugh said he did not believe he would be serving the industry well if he granted the company a licence at this stage. The letter from the accountants was "a bit of a fob". He needed to see the accounts and he wanted a represen
tat lye rom she company's
accountants at the next inquiry. He would also ask the Vehicle Inspectorate to carry out a full maintenance investigation, and if that was unsatisfactory the company could not expect to get a new licence.
Mervyn Pugh remarked that EC regulations will require licence holders to have more finance available, and that would no doubt see the end of a number of operators.