BRiE" Waste firm given time
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• A Manchester waste disposal
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company has been given until the end of the year to sort out its maintenance. North Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner Brian Horner cut the licence held by Progress Motors (Radcliffe), trading as Smyrna Skip Haulage, from seven to four vehicles. He ordered a further maintenance investigation by the end of the year and said he was giving the company a final opportunity to get its house in order.
Vehicle examiner Graham Brock said defects listed on prohibitions issued to the company's vehicles included loose wheelnuts and indicated inadequate driver checks. The refusal to clear a number of prohibitions indicated inadequate inspection and preparation standards.
Brock had imposed a delayed prohibition on one of the three vehicles he had inspected during a maintenance check in May. There was no forward planning system; inspection records were not properly completed; and there was no adequate driver defect reporting system.
Advice contained in a warning let ter sent to the company in June 1997 seemed to have been ignored. Managing director Charles Mun ro said there had been problems up to 1996 because the conipany's mechanic had failed to do the job properly. He felt the situation had improved since 1996. The systems recommended by the vehicle examiner had been put into place and his son was taking over the responsibility for maintenance.
Munro added that the finan cial situation had been very difficult in 1996 and 1997 as he had been off ill for a long time. He had now been able to get the company up and running again.
The Deputy TC said he was satisfied that the financial situation had stabilised and there was sufficient finance on the doc-u mentation produced for the four vehicles currently operated.
The worst of the recent prohibitions occurred after a driver had failed to report that a vehicle had been severely damaged on a tip, said Munro. Brock pointed out that this prohibition had been signed by Munro's son, Andrew, who agreed he had been driving on the day the prohibition was issued but said the vehicle had been damaged the previous day. He maintained that he could not see the damage.