Firm's plan to downgrade 0-licence is deemed 'entirely inappropriate'
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NORTH EAST traffic commissioner (TC) Kevin Rooney has told a County Durham scrap metal firm that a plan to downgrade its 0-licence to restricted, and therefore do away with the requirement to have a transport manager, was "entirely inappropriate".
At an October public inquiry in Leeds the TO was told that a driver employed by Shildonbased International Waste Metals — authorised to run 10 vehicles — had been convicted in March 2010 on four counts of making a false record of his driving duty.
He was fined £750 for the first offence with no separate penalty for the remaining offences.
However, the company failed to tell the TO about the offences. TO Rooney warned he would have to seriously consider
revocation if the company pursued the application to downgrade.
He added: "This is a company that has incurred a significant number of prohibitions for maintenance, failing to produce records and tachograph matters as well as a driver convicted of false records offences.
He concluded: "Against that history, reducing the level of professional knowledge within the business [is] entirely inappropriate."
Summing up
TC Rooney recorded a formal warning on the firm's 0-licence and disqualified company director John Cumberland from acting as a transport manager until he attends a transport manager CPC course.