Shetlands pose service problems
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• That there were special difficulties in maintaining vehicles in the Shetlands was accepted by the Scottish LA, Mr A. B. Birnie, at a show-cause hearing in Edinburgh on Monday when Edinburghbased hauliers Aitken and Wright were given a warning but no penalty.
Mr Kenneth Crossan, manager at the firm's Lerwick depot, said that they operated three tankers and one platform vehicle on liquid fuel distribution throughout the Shetlands. It was impossible, he said, for garages to get and retain quality mechanics because of the greater attractions of marine engineering, and garages admitted that this was so. In the Shetlands, too, scarcity of spares was a major problem. They had had difficulty on both counts and had finally decided to do their own work; they would have preferred to employ an outside garage, but had found that it was necessary to check all the work done by outside firms because of the standards of work applying in the area.
They admitted that each of the four vehicles received a delayed prohibition at a fleet inspection. It was claimed that all were cleared quickly.
The firm's records were excellent and showed, said Mr J. B. T. Loudon, that they knew of the defects but did not believe them to be as serious as did the vehicle examiners. It was also claimed that no records had been maintained at the firm's Edinburgh headquarters and this was admitted. Their vehicles had been in good shape and the lack of proper records had been corrected.
Mr Birnie said that it was accepted that islands presented a special problem but that could be exaggerated. In the circumstances he would not impose a penalty but would give a warning.
At another hearing in the same court Devine (Builders) Ltd, of Edinburgh, had its licence curtailed by one vehicle for two months. The firm admitted receiving one immediate and five delayed prohibitions out of 10 vehicles inspected. Mr Cyril Clark, vehicle examiner, said that inspections, if made, had been either inadequate or neglected. There were no records available for check on the inspections, the firm reporting that these had been destroyed by fire.
The company's transport manager, Mr Daniel Green, recently appointed, said that they had gone on to weekly inspections as from February in place of four-weekly. They were operating with tippers which were now being checked weekly.
Limiting the penalty, the LA, Mr A. B. Birnie, said he did so because they had been improving their facilities recently.