Records arguments could have been avoided, LA told
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• That endless argument would have been avoided if Parliament had provided the correct sort of form for record keeping, was the claim made by Mr James Law when he was representing two associate companies at a Section 69 hearing in Glasgow last \week.
The companies, Grater Bros (Removals) Ltd and Grater Bros Ltd, concerned with tipper work, were called before the Scottish LA because of maintenance infringements, and overloading and records offences.
Mr James Grater, a director of the companies, said that lie admitted the issue of one immediate and one delayed GV9 for the tipper company and one delayed GV9 for the removal firm. Although all six vehicles authorized on the removals licence were in use a trailer also authorized was not, in fact, in use. The tipper business, however, was not fully occupied and only two of the 10 vehicles authorized were in use Despite warnings to the drivers and to the quarry from where the vehicles worked, said Mr Grater, overloading convictions had been received on two occasions. A failure in the past to keep satisfactory records was also admitted although since an examiner's visit in October this had been corrected and suggestions from the examiner complied with.
Mr Law submitted that the firms' operations appeared to have been satisfactory except for record keeping. As for overloading, he argued, the firms were at the mercy of their staff.
The LA, Mr A. B. Birnie, curtailed the tipper licence to two vehicles (which was not punitive since only two vehicles on the licence were specified) and further reduced the licence to one vehicle for one month. The licence involving the removal vehicles was reduced by one trailer (not in use) and one vehicle for a period of one month.