Vehicles lost for month
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• A Lancashire farm gate manufacturer had her Operator's Licence suspended for a month after she presented trailers with faulty brakes.
Violet Hammond, trading as Hammond Gates of Morecambe, was appearing before North Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner Alan Cattell in her third public inquiry in three years.
Department of Transport vehicle examiner Brian Heyhurst said
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that he carried out an investigation into the company's main tenance in March following the issue of an immediate prohibition during a spot check. He inspected one vehicle and one trailer, imposing immediate prohibitions for brake defects.
When presented for clearance, the brake efficiency of the unit was below the required level and further brake defects were found on the trailer, said Heyhurst. There were only two inspection records for one of the vehicles since August 1995 and none for the other, he added. There were no records for the trailer at all.
General manager Peter Hammond said the firm's 71year-old transport manager had retired and Alan Dale, who had run vehicles of his own, had been appointed.
The maintenance was contracted out and each vehicle now had its own file. A flowchart, showing when inspections were due. had been introduced. A drivers' nil daily defect reporting system had also been instigated.
Mrs Hammond said she was paying out vast sums to the garage and thought that work was being done.
But Cattell said that until very recently the organisation of the maintenance had been slapdash, if not bordering on negligent. He directed that the vehicles and trailer be put through fresh annual tests.