No licence increase for one year
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Cardiff Despatch's licence has been cut from 12 vehicles and five trailers to eight vehicles and five trailers for two weeks, following the issue of 10 prohibition notices in 18 months.
The company had been called before the Welsh Traffic Commissioner David Dixon at a Barry disciplinary inquiry because of five convictions for overloading and concerns about its maintenance record.
Vehicle examiner Kevin Gist said that two of the prohibitions showed a significant maintenance failure. Three vehicles were examined during a fleet check in September; some advisory defects were noted, but none attracted prohibitions. Inspection records for some vehicles were missing for periods of as long as 11 months.
Gist reported that the prohibited vehicles seemed to be those with the longest periods between documented inspections, but on the positive side a driver defect reporting system was in operation and seemed to be working. "During the last months of 1999 and the first half of 2000 there have been shortcomings in the maintenance system," he concluded.
Director David Emmett said there had been problems with a certain member of staff, who had since been replaced. 'We had a fitter who would spend more time pinching fuel from the company than working on the vehicles," he alleged. "He would even claim the overtime from us to do it. We had a massive theft problem with fuel, losing £14,000-worth in three months, and it was only revealed when we had an audit."
Emmett said the company spent a lot of money on parts, and he admitted that despite the fitter's alleged activities the maintenance was still his responsibility The business had grown at a phenomenal rate in the last two years, he added, and he had allowed his attention to wander from the maintenance side of the operation.
Curtailing the licence for a fortnight, the TC told Emmett: "You have accepted responsibility on behalf of your company. You had so much on your plate for a long period and had too much to do so that you were not able to keep on top of the maintenance issues in particular."
He warned that he was unlikely to grant any increase in vehicle authorisation until the company had run without problems for 12 clear months.