Continuing failures
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• A Liverpool haulage company which was said to have continually failed to meet required maintenance standards has had two vehicles suspended from its licence for two months.
Maghull-based Breeze Distribution, which holds a licence for 12 vehicles and 12 trailers, had been called before North Western Traffic Commissioner Keith Waterworth.
DOT vehicle examiner Eric Bober said he carried out a maintenance investigation in November following the issuing of a prohibition during a roadside check. He examined seven vehicles and two trailers, imposing one delayed and two immediate prohibitions with seven defect notices.
The necessary systems were in place, said Bober, but the prohibitions indicated that something was missing. Ten immediate and three delayed prohibitions had been issued to the company's vehicles between September 1994 and January 1997. There was a scruffy and cluttered two-bay workshop containing an inspection pit that was frequently waterlogged.
Director Joseph Clark agreed that it was "not a pretty garage" but said they had made a concerted effort to tidy up the workshop. A new driver defect reporting system had been introduced and arrangements had been made for the local Volvo dealer to carry out brake tests four
times a year. They had realised that the vehi cles were too old for what they were asking them to do and had replaced four vehicles over the past eight months.
Waterworth warned that if there was no improvement serious action against the licence was likely to result.