Firm is warned after failing to report offences
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A failure to notify two convictions for overloading led to a familyrun business being called before Western Traffic Commissioner Philip Brown.
But J H Rose & Sons, of Gillingham, Dorset, was issued with only a warning when the TC accepted that the oversights had been genuine mistakes.
The first offence was in 1998 when a driver was convicted of an axle overload. The company was convicted later of a similar offence. Neither offence was reported to the local Traffic Area.
Paul Carless, for J H Rose, told the disciplinary inquiry at Bristol that the business had been trading for about 100 years and had an exemplary record. It held a licence for 17 vehicles and three trailers. Initially a coal haulier, J H Roses work now consisted mainly of transporting animal feed and aggregates.
Company secretary Timothy Rose said he was unable to explain why the first conviction had not been notified. The second conviction had simply "gone out of his head".
The company was aware of potential overloading problems when carrying aggregates, as there was a 16m3 body capacity and 12 tonnes of aggregate occupied less space than that, said Rose.
Finding that the company had not lost its repute, the TC accepted that it had been a genuine mistake. He pointed out that he would have been hilly entitled to take action against the licence had he seen fit.