Warning issued, but improvements noted
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MAINTENANCE OFFENCES, including 17 prohibitions, have led to a formal warning for a Yorkshire operator. Its vehicle test pass rate was less than 60%.
TSL Vanguard Vehicle Services, which had an 0-licence for 30 vehicles and 30 trailers, had been called before the NorthEastern Traffic Commissioner Tom Macartney.
Vehicle examiner Andrew Williams said that five immediate and 12 delayed prohibitions, and five variation notices, had been issued to the company's vehicles and trailers. There was an initial pass rate at annual test of 28.21% and a final pass rate of 58.97%.
A maintenance investigation in February 2009 revealed that the stated inspection frequency of six weeks was not being adhered to.
Williams agreed with Gary Hodgson, for the firm, that none of the prohibitions had been 'S'marked and only one had been issued since the investigation. Director Alan Liversidge said the business had spent £50,000 on upgrading the maintenance facilities at its Rotherham depot and 050.000 on improving its Leeds premises, including buying a roller brake tester.
The company's main business was delivering generators and plant. One of the problems it had was that the sites it delivered to were not designed for HGVs, which resulted in damage to the firm's vehicles.
The vehicles that had gone beyond their inspection periods had been working off-road on an Ml contract. A vehicle had been used while subject to a prohibition notice. The defect had been repaired at the test station and it had been assumed that the prohibition had been lifted.
Liversidge gave a series of undertakings relating to the firm's maintenance arrangements.
Hodgson said that since February last year, there had been an improvement in the vehicle test pass rate and the condition of vehicles stopped in roadside checks. There had been only one prohibition since August 2008.