Defects conflict for LA
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• The Vehicle Inspectorate has been attacked for inconsistency during disciplinary proceedings involving Dior Skip Hire before West Midland Licensing Authority John Mervyn Pugh.
In addition to considering taking action against the company's licence, the LA had before him an application for renewal for 12 vehicles based at Lye, Stourbridge, West Midlands.
For the company, Michael Carless said there were inconsistencies between a test station and vehicle examiners, who examined the same vehicle and found different defects. A vehicle which passed its annual test in October, and which had not moved since, was given a delayed prohibition in December for defects which included a worn shackle pin. When presented for clearance, the prohibition was varied for other items found, including another worn shackle pin. That meant that the examiner who tested the vehicle in Octgber missed two worn shackle pins; if they were worn.
The incidence of such incon sistencies was increasing, said Carless, and he wondered whether it was because the VI had now become "commercial".
Carless said there was no suggestion of neglect, so the system had not gone wrong. The problem had been difficulties in getting four vehi cles through their annual test at once last October. The company's mechanic had been unable to cope with that but maintenance was now contracted out to a garage.
After managing director Timothy Dyson had said that the company was a member of the Road Haulage Association, Mervyn Pugh suggested that it joined the Freight Transport Association, saying the FTA had a maintenance scheme which could be used as an audit check, while unfortunately the RHA did not. Dyson said it made life extremely difficult when one vehicle examiner said that equipment was all right and another said it was not.
Mervyn Pugh said that it made it difficult for him as well. This was a case that gave him cause for concern, as there appeared to be a conflict between vehicle examiners as to what was a defect and what was not.
Mervyn Pugh renewed the licence but issued a warning.