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Licence cut after transport negled
Page 35
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A CRANE-HIRE specialist that admitted transport had been neglected has had its licence cut from four vehicles and six trailers to three vehicles and four trailers.
Irlam, Salford-based Winterlift, which holds a restricted licence, had been called before the NorthWestern Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell, who said this was one of the worst cases of maintenance record keeping she had ever seen.
Vehicle examiner Alan Chan said he had carried out a maintenance investigation in June following a loose wheels incident on the M6 motorway when the nearside rear wheel studs sheared. He examined two vehicles and three trailers, imposing one immediate and two delayed prohibitions plus an advisory' notice. There were a lot of large gaps in the inspection records and Chan was told this was due to some being misplaced by the transport manager who had left,and the foreman fitter being off work for a considerable time.The number and nature of the prohibitions was unacceptable and showed that maintenance was not to the required standard.
Company secretary Peter Winterburn said the company operated a large fleet of cranes and transport was a small part that had been neglected.The transport manager had left the company and the firm had moved to purpose-built premises with everything it needed to maintain the vehicles. Inspections were now at sixweekly intervals and it operated a nil defect reporting systermArrangements had been made for the Freight Transport Association (ETA) to carry out audits.
Winter added that Winterlift had joined the VIA just after the vehicle examiner's visit and the ETA had carried out driver training.
The TC said it was one of the worst cases she had dealt with in respect of a lack of maintenance records, with gaps of up to 44 weeks and no records at all for one vehicle. In cutting the licence, she said that what the vehicle examiner had found was shocking. She directed that there be a further maintenance investigation in six months' time.