Prohibitions put Attitude caused concern
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0-licence at risk
• Birch Plant & Waste Disposal Services' licence has been cut to expire at the end of January and North Western LA Martin Albu warned the company that if there were any other problems the licence would not be renewed.
The company holds a licence for six vehicles which was due to expire in April 1997.
Vehicle examiner Simon McCalla said that in a maintenance investigation following the issue of a prohibition notice listing 13 defects, three vehicles were examined and two immediate prohibitions were issued. Some records did not show vehicle mileage and other records were not readily available.
The service records did not appear to relate to the condition of the vehicles. However, the primary concern was the large number of defects found on a road check which then re-appeared on a variation notice or at annual test.
Between February 1993 and May 1995 there had been four immediate and six delayed prohibitions. A vehicle given a prohibition notice in May attended the test station three times before the prohibition was cleared, said McCalla.
Asked why defects were not being picked up, director Anthony Cash said it was the drivers' fault. "You would expect a chap who you are paying £14,000 a year to fill the windscreen wiper fluid," said Cash. If the situation reoccurred the drivers would be suspended or have money docked from their wages, he said.
However the LA said that would Albu: Reduced length of Birch's licence. be illegal unless it was included in the drivers' contracts. "Sometimes when you employ drivers you do not get a brain," said Cash.
He agreed to introduce a daily nil defect reporting system and to write to the drivers pointing out their responsibilities.
After the LA had said he was worried the inspections did not appear to be picking up defects, Cash said he had had two fitters who had not done the job required. The two fitters the company now employed had got their act together, he said.
Albu said that he did not think that they had, in view of the number of prohibitions: two had been issued in the previous week.
The LA said he was concerned because the accounts were in the name of Birch Skip Hire Ltd.
After Cash had said that that was the trading name, Albu said the company could not call itself Birch Skip Hire Ltd, but could trade as Birch Skip Hire.
Cash said he had not been aware of that.
Albu said he was cutting the licence duration to give Cash a chance to put things right. He did not think that he had really taken the situation on board.