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INDUSTRY NEWS
Page 10
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Sutton licence hit over maintenance
• by Mike Jewell Leading Hazahern haulier Suttons has had the authorisation on its Operator's Licence cut after a public enquiry heard its maintenance procedures were poor and three vehicles had last wheels.
Last week the Widnes-based company, which holds an international licence for 245 vehicles and 400 trailers, appeared before North Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner Mark Hinchriffe at a Leeds disciplinary inquiry. Vehicle examiner David Collings said that over the past five years 13 immediate and 23 delayed prohibitions had been imposed on the company's vehicles and trailers.
He carried out a maintenance investigation in September following a wheel-loss incident on the M1 in West Yorkshire involving a trailer carrying acid. It was found that the six-weekly inspection frequency for a number of vehicles and trailers had been exceeded on several occasions, with the gap being as great as 24 weeks on one occasion.
In May a set of wheels came off as a vehicle was crossing the Severn Bridge, Collings added, and in June 1995 the company had been fined £2,500 at Dumfries after two wheels came off another of its vehicles.
For the company, Jonathan Lawton said that the police had indicated they did not propose taking any action over the M1 or Severn Bridge incidents. Engineering director William Mills accepted there had been a problem in locating vehicles when they were required for safety inspections, but he told the inquiry that a new type of inspection record had been introduced.
Promising that engineering staff would be sent on Vehicle Inspectorate courses within six months, Mills said that in the past year the Widnes depot had spent 2905,448 on maintenance.
In January 1999 they had taken over a fleet of vehicles from Wincanton and they had found it necessary to spend a surprising amount of money and time to bring that fleet up to Sutton's standards, said Lawton. The company had a good history over the years and had never been to public inquiry before.
Cutting the trailer authorisation to 275, the Deputy IC said he recognised that what appeared to have been a serious incident on the road had to be placed in a broader context. However, the prohibition history gave cause for concern.