AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

C&M gets 14 days' grace

20th June 1996, Page 18
20th June 1996
Page 18
Page 18, 20th June 1996 — C&M gets 14 days' grace
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

• A Birmingham skip hire company has two weeks to prove two of its vehicles are taxed and have current test certificates. If it fails to do so they will be suspended from its licence.

C&M Skips appeared at a Birmingham disciplinary inquiry before West Midland Deputy Traffic Commissioner Roger Seymour following an unsatisfactory maintenance report. The company holds a licence for five vehicles.

For the company, Michael Carless said it had appeared at two previous public inquiries following convictions for vehicle excise duty offences This was the first time that maintenance had been an issue.

Maintaining that the vehicle examiner's report was not a bad one, Carless said that two vehicles had been examined and one prohibition had been issued. The vehicle examiner had made it clear it did not show a significant maintenance failure. The company's mechanic had been off sick for two months but was now back at work.

Managing director Edwin Dayus said he had been in business 44 years and could not remember any prohibitions before March of this year.

Seymour commented that it all seemed to fall apart if the fitter went sick, which indicated a weakness in the system. A prohibition issued at a roadside check in March for a steering defect had been endorsed as a significant maintenance failure, he added. The defect could have led to a complete collapse of the steering mechanism.

That prohibition had not been cleared until April.

Dayus told the DTC that the vehicle had been taken off the road until the prohibition had been lifted. The company employed a mobile fitter, normally two days a week, but had arranged back-up from another mechanic.

Three vehicles had gone through their annual tests in the past seven weeks, said Dayus, and the fourth vehicle would go through the following week. He added that all four vehicles were currently taxed but Seymour said he wanted to see evidence of that. He had been shown photocopied tax discs for two of the vehicles; he needed to see similar evidence that the other two vehicles were taxed.


comments powered by Disqus