Inexperience saves Moir
Page 17
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
North Western Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell has heard that a restricted licence holder who set up a business in September 1998 had "floundered without expert advice". Ian Moir, trading as JJ Scaffolding Services, of Wigan, appeared before the TC at a Wigan disciplinary inquiry.
He escaped with a formal warning and succeeded in a bid to increase his licence authorisation from one to two vehicles after promising to attend a new operator's seminar, Charles Stansfield, appearing for Moir, said that while Moir had been convicted of the unauthorised use of a second vehicle, he arguably had a defence as the vehicle was not carrying goods for use in his business.
Moir had been having some work done on his house and the vehicle was carrying scaffolding in connection with this work.
Vehicle examiner Paul Harrison said he had examined the second vehicle in March and issued it with an immediate prohibition for a tyre defect. He was told that the vehicle had not been used for business purposes since it was bought six months before.
However, there was a difference of 15,000km between the odometer readings and the record of its last inspection, and Harrison believed it had been used as part of Moir's business.
Harrison felt that as a restricted licence holder, Moir would benefit from some training and he agreed that he would have preferred to have visited him much sooner after the licence was granted.
Stansfield said the second vehicle had been used as a taxi to transport gangs between the various sites. The application for the second vehicle was sent in last October but interim authority to operate it was not granted until March, which seemed an inordinate amount of time.
When the vehicle was inspected it was not subject to the 0-licence and that was why it was not in tip-top order, Standsfieid added. He told the TO that Moir had joined the Road Haulage Association and was taking advice from them.
Moir explained that his business was expanding and he desperately needed two vehicles. When he had said the second vehicle had not been used for business purposes, he had meant it had not been used to carry materials.
Demanding the undertaking, the TO told Moir: "I don't want your business to fail because of shoddy vehicles with bald tyres running when they ought not to."