An LA's 'musts' for maintenance
Page 27
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• The first statement by an LA on the maintenance criteria upon which he will wish to be satisfied when hearing applications for operators' licences under the 1968 Transport Act has come from Mr. J. R. C. Samuel-Gibbon, the Western area Licensing Authority.
Mr. Samuel-Gibbon's views take the form of a message which Mr. A. J. Ingham, the area's senior mechanical engineer, presented to a recent meeting of the Western Area Vehicle Maintenance Advisory Committee. The text of the message is as follows:—
"The prime consideration will be the safe and sound mechanical condition of vehicles. This must be allied with and stem from systematic maintenance backed by sufficient records to enable me to be satisfied that vehicle condition is likely to be consistently satisfactory. It will not be essential for an operator to employ his own maintenance staff, but whatsoever method he adopts the general conditions above will apply and the responsibility will at all times rest with the operator.
"It is perhaps opportune to add, notwithstanding it being obvious, that in cases where operators do maintain their own vehicles, the better the facilities and aids to maintenance they have, the better are their staff likely to respond.
"I confidently look to the Western Area Maintenance Committee to do all they can to encourage and guide operators to these ends."