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Over-eager operator warned
Page 31
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Expanding your business is natural enough — but TC Geoffrey Simms has underlined the dangers of jumping the gun.
EASTERN TRAFFIC Commissioner Geoffrey Simms found that Felixstowe-based John Hogan had jumped the gun by operating vehicles belonging to MJ Graves International on his own 0-licence. But Simms decided not to take any action after concluding that Hogan had not deliberately given assistance to an unlicensed operator.
On 18 August 2003 a vehicle was stopped by police at Bury St Edmunds because it was not displaying an 0-licence disc.The driver wore a polo shirt bearing the logo "IvIJ Graves International" and produced a document showing the container being carried had been released to that firm.
Agreements
The driver was working under the instructions of Jennifer Graves but thought he was being paid by a firm named Boxton.
Jennifer Graves arrived at the scene with documents representing a hiring agreement between MJ Graves International and Hogan. She said she would be entering similar agreements with other operators, including Boxton, following the revocation of her husband's licence and the refusal of interim authority for her to operate herself.
As a result of this the vehicle was not impounded.
The TC said Jennifer Graves was desperately trying to continue a business founded by her disgraced husband. She offered Hogan the chance to expand his business with proven vehicles and drivers with a guarantee of work. There was no reason why Hogan should not have hired two vehicles from her and operated them himself as he had the margin to do so. One of the vehicles remained on his licence to this day.
However, the TC said he could not be satisfied that the necessary arrangements had been properly made prior to the morning of 18 August.The documents shown to the traffic examiner were all dated 18 August and the vehicle was specified on Hogan's licence on 19 August.
He concluded that Jennifer Graves was in fact the user of the vehicle on the day in question, suggesting the encounter with the traffic examiner was the stimulus for the arrangements.
Simms remarked that Mrs Graves must have been greatly relieved to have secured the release of her vehicle — without Hogan's assistance it would most likely have been impounded.
For Hogan to expand his business was a per fectly natural pursuit for a professional operator. The timing of the administrative procedures was somewhat tardy, but the TC was satisfied that while Hogan's repute had been put at great risk, it had not been lost.