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Bell's tough on her turf
Page 23
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Pp In an admission
that will surprise that will surprise many hauliers, North Western Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell says she has been too lenient with a number of operators on her patch. When Bell cut the licence held by Wigan-based Raymond and Margaret Smyth's trading as Hay Smyth Transport she announced her intention to take a Prim line in future.
In this case the TC cut the Smyth's 0-licence from six vehicles and two trailers to four vehicles and two trailers for six months: and to five vehicles and two trailers thereafter.
Vehicle examiner Paul Harrison said that the firm's vehicles had attracted two immediate and three delayed prohibitions in the past five years. He carried out a maintenance investigation in May following the issue of an S-marked prohibition during a roadside check, showing a serious maintenance failure. Two vehicles were examined and were found to be in a satisfactory condition.
However. the records showed that inspections were
not being carried out at the stated six-week intervals: in some cases intervals were extended by up to five months, There was no forward planner and drivers only reported defects verbally. The vehicle given an 5-prohibition for a seized load sensing valve was refused clearance because of poor service brake efficiency.
Bell said her main concern was the long intervals between safety inspections. The records seemed to show that they were still not being carried out every six weeks, and the mileages entered had been altered.
Harrison said he was told that the firm were doing intervening inspections themselves without recording them.
Raymond Smyth said he had set the business up in Apri11978. The vehicles were engaged on regular work, going to the same places all the time, and the job virtually ran itself.
The maintenance was contracted out to Morris International Transport Services (MITS) which was now inspecting the vehicles every six weeks.
He was happy that MITS was carrying out the maintenance properly and had previously not realised that he needed to keep copies of the drivers' defect reports. From now on they would be using an approved drivers' defect report book.
Jonathan Backhouse, appearing for the firm, said Smyth was adamant the inspections had been carried out and he could not understand why the documents were not there. He had no explanation for the altered mileages, as he did not fill in the records himself
The TC said that if Smyth found the missing records she would immediately increase the licence authorisation to five vehicles and two trailers.