Dealer learnt from mistakes
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West Midland Traffic Commissioner David Dixon has warned Walsall pallet dealer Brian VI Smith about his maintenance standards, but
• he increased Smith's licence authorisation trom one to two vehicles.
Smith, who trades as Aldridge Pallet Supplies, appeared before the IC at a Birmingham disciplinary inquiry. He was operating the second vehicle under interim authority In the 16 months since the licence was granted in October 1998, Smith's vehicles had attracted one immediate and two delayed prohibitions.
Vehicle examiner Michael Brown said he had examined one vehicle in Smith's yard in October, issuing it with a delayed prohibition for a cracked brake disc. The maintenance was contracted out and inspections were said to take place every six weeks. However, no inspection records or driver defect reports could be produced and there was no forward planner. Smith told him that the inspection records were held by the contractors.
Dealing with the immediate prohibition for a badly deflated tyre issued in November, Smith said there had been a hole in the tyre which must have occurred during the journey. Pallet vehicles were regularly "pulled" and he had had a spate of being stopped every week for six weeks. He now kept the maintenance records at his home. They were not kept in the caravan used as an office in the yard as it had been burgled 24 times in two years. A note of the inspection dates had been kept in a diary.
Smith said he had made every effort to put things right since the examiner's visit.
Taking no action, and granting the additional vehicle, the IC accepted that ignorance rather than a desire to flout the system had led to these problems, and that Smith had learnt from his mistakes.