Skip hauliers skipped rules
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• Two skip hauliers were warned to change their behaviour or face licence revocation after they told Eastern Traffic Area public inquiries that the nature of their job prevented them from keeping proper maintenance records.
Suffolk skip operator David Free, who runs two vehicles from his transfer station in Leiston, received a warning letter following a maintenance inspection in June 1998.
No driver defect system was in operation; one vehicle had gone 16 weeks between inspections; and one vehicle had five defects including worn wiper blades and an inoperative rear fog warning light. Free said he and his wife had let "paperwork slip" because they failed to record defects, preferring imme
diate garage repair, like other owner-drivers.
Deputy Traffic Commissioner Philip Brown gave Free a verbal warning. Free said he now realised that even operators with a small number of vehicles should report defects daily.
At a maintenance inspection on 14 May 1997, Leicestershirebased skip operator Darren White, who owns Dusty Bins Skip Hire of Barrow upon Soar, was found to have an inadequate driver defect system and a poor inspection frequency. Vehicles were found to have light and brake defects, White, who drives one of his two vehicles, told the inquiry that he did not keep a daily defect record because you do not think about that when you're driving all day".
Brown was concerned that no action had been taken on maintenance between a warning letter in 1994 and 1997. He cut White's licence from three vehicles to two.