Firm needs hire margin
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A Merseyside company whose managing director admitted it might have "Inadvertently" operated more vehicles than were authorised on its licence, has been granted additional vehicles.
Kirkby-based Martini Freight Services had been called before North Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner Patrick Mulvenna at a Trafford disciplinary inquiry. The company was applying to change its operating centre and to add four vehicles to its two-vehicle licence.
Managing director Alfred McCorcorran said the company ran a fleet of 15 to 20 panel vans on express courier services to Europe but wanted to expand the large vehicle side of the business.
It had been the practice to hire vehicles in for a few days at a time and the company might have inadvertently operated more than two vehicles on the road at any one time. To avoid such problems in the future the company required a margin on its licence.
Asked about an overloading conviction, McCorcorran said the vehicle concerned had been returning from Germany and
France. The load had been well within the permitted limit but the driver decided to buy a load of beer in Calais. When the beer was taken off the vehicle was within the legal limit.
A conviction for an insecure load arose when the driver failed to secure the load properly and it came through the rear shutters, said McCorcorran. He accepted that in the past he had not fully understood the 0-licensing requirements. Though the paperwork might have been wanting in the past, he considered that the maintenance itself had been Al.
For the company, Paul Carless said McCorcorran now recognised that running 0licensed vehicles was a different ball game to running small vans and he had employed an experienced transport manager.
The Deputy TC granted the variation application with a warning.