No-licence Canin is caught at DT again
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by Rob Willock • Illegal operator Canin is still turning up for international loads at Davies Turner a month after Commercial Motor exposed it as a law-breaking haulier serving an 0licence suspension (CM11-17 December).
A vigilant owner-driver phoned CM's hotline last week (see opposite) with news that two Canin-liveried vehicles were waiting for loads at DT's Dartford depot. Other sightings are still being reported on the Turkish run.
CM informed the Vehicle Inspectorate and sent a photographer to the site where Canin's MAN artic N677 WKE was spotted—untaxed and unlicensed.
Another vehicle, N791 JMR, left the depot before CM'S photographer and the VI arrived, but it had previously been snapped at DT's Trafford Park depot. This vehicle registration number does not exist on DVLA records.
DT and the VI invited Canin director Gurcan Sungar to the Dartford depot to explain the situation but he failed to show up, as did the driver of N677 WKE which is impounded in the yard.
Sungar's previous explanation has been that he no longer owns or operates the vehicles. But early VI investigations suggest that Canin has invoiced DT four times for work carried out after November's public inquiry at which its 0-licence was suspended for three months.
The VI warns that unless freight forwarders run tight checks on hauliers they lay themselves open to abuse. It says that, because DT's booking system is based on trailer numbers rather than vehicle registration numbers, it is vulnerable.
DT's joint managing director Michael Stevenson says: "Dartford is emphatic that no Canin vehicles have been loaded. The company has been strongly informed that its vehicles will not be loaded until its paperwork is in order."
CM is now in close consultation with the Vehicle Inspectorate to continue investigations into the apparent scourge of unlicensed, untaxed Turkish-run vehicles. Davies Turner: No Canin trucks have been loaded.