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TC brands operator a liar and revokes 0-licence
Page 28
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An international firm had no control over its trucks or drivers and lied to the TC over several important facts.
AN INTERNATIONAL operator who had no proper control over his vehicles and misled the Traffic Commissioner on several important facts has had his 0-licence revoked and been disqualified from holding an 0-licence indefinitely.
Lancashire international haulier John Cowie, trading as Cowie Transport, appearing before North-Western Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell, held a licence for five vehicles and two trailers.
He had told the TC that a vehicle he drove to Gibraltar in December belonged to RI International (Inquiry adjourned for fleet activity probe'. CM 6 March) despite being registered to him and taxed and insured by him.
He had claimed the vehicle was on a licence held by Jack Duckworth, although that vehicle had never been specified on Duckworth's licence. He also said that vehicles went single-manned to Hungary and then double-manned to their destination, then back to Hungary. He only employed the main driver who in turn paid the second driver.
Cowie claimed it was impossible to comply with the drivers' hours rules in Italy. Sp ain, Bulgaria, Romani a, H un gary, Ukraine and Russia, saying that if a driver stopped, they could get robbed, gassed or shot (International haulier under TC's scrutiny', CM 17 July).
The TC said Cowie misled her with much of his evidence. One serious example was his assertion that he had driven to Gibraltar on a journey for another operator, when, in fact, he was the operator. He also tried to mislead by altering his statement regarding the double-manning of vehicles in Eastern Europe through the Eastern European drivers "employing" the second man and by his comments about the drivers' handbook being issued in 2006 or 2007, when it was clearly issued in 2008. That was nothing more than "a cynical attempt to hoodwink her" into thinking that the drivers had access to the handbook for a longer period.
Cowie had operated on the Continent for a considerable time without the exercise of any proper control over his vehicles and drivers, making it inevitable that road safety and fair competition were jeopardised.
He had lied to her more than once in a cynical attempt to mislead her into not taking regulatory action against his licence.
That was a dangerous practice since the Crown Court had in one case in the North-West Traffic Area sentenced former operators to a term of imprisonment for telling lies to her in a public inquiry.