Munson licence curtailed by five
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• D. R. Munson Ltd, the Hadleigh, Suffolk, company with 113 convictions against itself and drivers has had its licence curtailed by five vehicles and the margin of four removed.
In a written decision following a public inquiry on July 5 Mr H. E. Robson, Eastern LA, refers to 38 convictions against the company and 75 against 22 drivers employed by it. All the offences, he says, relate to hours and records and were recorded within a four-year period up to December 1972.
Mr Robson says that in spite of undertakings given at a previous inquiry in 1970, and with enforcement officers making constant calls on the operator over the past three years, there were further convictions in December 1972. An examination of the register of drivers' books hnd of drivers' record sheets shows that there were many serious errors and omissions up to April this year.
The LA points out that Mr Derek Munson has taken full responsibility for the day-to-day running of the company including supervision of records. He finds
that Mr Munson has not set out to flout the law but has failed to give sufficient priority and says: "In a matter of this kind which involves public safety I will in all cases consider taking action on the operator's licence where there is evidence if not of wilful evasion then of persistent neglect by a licence holder effectively to discharge his responsibilities."
At the inquiry Mr Munson said he was a director of three haulage companies and had given as much time as he could spare to records. He accepted that his best had not proved good enough. He now had a general manager and a transport manager who would take responsibility. His counsel made a strong plea to the LA not to revoke the licence but to give the new arrangements a chance to work.
Munson's licence authorized 33 vehicles and 32 trailers; with extra vehicles added since the inquiry it specified 29 vehicles and 21 trailers. Curtailment leaves 24 vehicles with no change in the number of trailers.