Haulier wins licence appeal
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WEST MIDLANDS haulier Deep Transport – which had its O-licence revoked after a VOSA investigation uncovered nearly 2,000 missing kilometres from tachograph charts during a two-month period – has successfully appealed the decision.
Upper Tribunal Judge Jacqueline Beech overturned the ruling issued by Tim Hayden, West Midlands deputy traffic commissioner (DTC), which took away the firm’s licence for three vehicles and six trailers, following a public inquiry (PI).
Judge Beech said that at the June 2011 PI, the DTC should have taken into account possible improvements in the firm’s operational conduct, since an earlier hearing.
The PI examined an investigation into the haulier by VOSA traffic examiner Robert Lees. Lees looked at 65 tachograph charts from the company and found that nine drivers out of a total of14 drivers had committed 13 separate offences.
Lees was also unable to identify six of the drivers whose names appeared on records sheets because Deep Transport was unable to produce driving licences.
He looked at records from 1 August to 30 September 2010, and discovered that 1,824 kilometres were unaccounted for.
In May 2010, Walsall Magistrates’ Court fined the company £500 and imposed £517 in costs for an offence of failing to produce tachograph record sheets.
On appeal, Judge Beech accepted the haulier’s argument that the DTC had failed to balance the negative and the positive features of the evidence.
She allowed the appeal to go through and said there should be a full re-hearing before a different TC.