Licence cut by six vehicles
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A tipper operator's licence was cut by six vehicles when the company appeared at its third public inquiry within 18 months over maintenance issues.
Amberhill, of Maltby, Rotherham, South Yorks held a licence for 32 vehicles and two trailers.
Vehicle examiner Peter Moses told a Leeds disciplinary inquiry that the vehicles were engaged on arduous work with about 40% of the mileage offroad.
Three vehicles he examined in April were in a satisfactory condition and he was happy with the maintenance system. But the company's vehicles continued to attract prohibitions and those imposed since the last public inquiry in November 1999 suggested a lack of attention to detail during preventive maintenance inspections.
He agreed with Gary Hodgson, for the company, that but for two immediate and six delayed prohibitions issued this year it would have been a glowing report.
Transport manager Roger Garnett said two of the prohibitions were disputed. In one case where it was said suspension baits were loose, it had been impossible to tighten them and the prohibition was lifted. In the other case no trace could be found of an oil leak listed on the prohibition.
A system of auditing the work by the fitting staff had been introduced and driver training was continuing, said Garnett. He maintained that even if new vehicles were used, similar defects would occur. He felt hard done by being called to a further public inquiry as a lot of time and money had been put into developing a good system. He felt the company's problems were no different from those of others doing the same type of work. North Eastern Traffic Commissioner Tom Macartney said that the company had got a lot of things right but the results were not good enough.
Garnett said that they had employed an engineering consultant to appraise the company's maintenance system and introduce training schemes for the staff. Pointing out that there had been no 'S' marked prohibitions since the last public inquiry, Hodgson argued that the company had not been culpably negligent and was doing everything it possibly could, pointing out that many of the defects occurred during operation.
Cutting the licence to 26 vehicles and two trailers with a final warning, the commissioner said that 35 prohibitions had been issued to the company's vehicles over the past five years and that was a terrible record. He rejected the argument that "operational" prohibitions were not culpable. When vehicles were attracting a number of prohibitions and the operator did not take action they must be culpable.