lescost's last chance
Page 16
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• The licence held by Lescost Transport, of Gateshead, has been renewed for 12 months only by North Eastern Deputy Traffic Commissioner John Hampton because of continuing maintenance problems.
The DTC was prepared to authorise the operation of three vehicles, and not the six asked for, when the company appeared at a Leeds public inquiry.
Low
He said the imposition of immediate prohibitions in December and January led to a public inquiry in June at which then IC Fred Whalley cut the authorisation from 10 vehicles to three and directed that the licence expire at the end of the month.
Vehicle examiner Norman Shiel said he inspected two vehicles in July, imposing one immediate prohibition and one delayed prohibition. There did not seem to have been any improvement since the previous maintenance investigation in January. Of seven prohibitions issued in the past two years, six had been immediate.
Managing director James Hunter said that as a result of the fleet inspection,
and one of the prohibited vehicles receiving a variation notice for ridiculous item, he concluded that the company's fitter was not doing his job properly and had been replaced.
The older vehicles had been got rid of. The workshop area was now immaculate and an inspection pit would be installed. The company was proposing to join the Freight Transport Association so it could arrange for FTA inspections.
In reply to the DTC, Hunter , said he did not know why vehicles were not inspected when they should have been. He was unable to say why he had inserted the wrong dates when counter-signing inspection records. If the fitter had made the sheets out after the vehicle examiner's inspection he had done so without his knowledge.
Hampton said that he did not want to put Hunter out of business, but this was the company's last chance.