Time to stake a claim
Page 19
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• A bid by John Griffin, trading as North West Haulage, of Blackpool, to increase his vehicle authorisation, and consideration of disciplinary action against his licence, has been adjourned to give him an opportunity of substantiating claims that he had applied for an interim licence.
Griffin was seeking to increase the authorisation on his national licence from two vehicles and trailers to five vehicles and trailers, and to move his operating centre to the premises of Canning Transport, at Leyland.
DTp vehicle examiner Alan Singleton said that five vehicles and trailers were being operated in March, and Griffin admitted that he had no licence discs for the additional vehicles. He said that he had ap plied for interim authority and it had taken eight months to deal with. He had telephoned the Traffic Area a number of times, being told on one occasion that the papers had been lost. He was eventually told that if he sent a cheque he could operate the additional vehicles. He did not know whether the cheque he had sent had been cashed.
Traffic Commissioner Martin Albu said that the Traffic Area had no record of any such application for interim authority.
Singleton said that when he visited the firm, a Gary Ward had introduced himself as Griffin's partner. Griffin said that they had intended going into partnership. However, Ward went his own way, taking two of the vehicles with him.
Albu said inquiries would be made to see if Ward had any licence authority. Griffin said that he had originally traded as JG Transport. He changed the name to North West Haulage two years ago because nobody wanted to deal with a small owner-operator. He had wanted a more impressive name to obtain larger contracts. It had worked, as he now had contracts with a number of large companies. He admitted being convicted of drivers' hours and tachograph offences in 1987, but said that had been when he was operating as JG Transport.
Albu said he was concerned that Griffin had been running vehicles without licence authority. However, he seemed to be running a reasonably successful business and he would be reluctant to put Griffin out of business altogether. Before the end of the month he wanted evidence that Griffin had applied for an interim licence.