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Bell gives one more chance to get it right
Page 33
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A Manchester haulier was given one more chance to get its maintenance sorted when it appeared before North Western Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell at a Wigan discipli nary inquiry. The TC cut the licence held by Swiftsure, trading as Bob Ralph & Son, of Urmston, from 14 vehicles and 10 trailers to 10 vehicles and 10 trailers.
Vehicle examiner Carl Hilton said he had imposed an immediate prohibition on a vehicle for a defective brake valve. There were gaps of up to 12 months in the inspection records for some of the vehicles and trailers. There was no forward planning system in use and no evidence of any driver defect reporting system.
Maintaining that there was a forward planning system, director Graham Ralph said that in relation to driver defect reporting: in a roundabout way I am innocent. If a driver reports a defect it is dealt with straight away." Ralph said he was concerned about the number of prohibitions himself as he did not take things lightly.
Explaining the fact that two-thirds of the 12 prohibitions issued in the past 12 months were brake related, he said the problem for small hauliers was that few places had rolling road brake testers.
Asked why there were gaps in the inspection records, Ralph said they had not all been there at the time of the vehicle examiner's visit. Bell said that it was clear the company was spending huge amounts of money without achieving an effective maintenance system. A vehicle had been given a prohibition at annual test only the previous week, said Ralph. As a result the firm planned to change its maintenance contractor.
The company would be joining the RHA, said Ralph who undertook to have vehicles and trailers inspected every 12 weeks and to implement a number of other maintenance initiatives. Bell required a maintenance contract to be produced within 28 days, saying that gave the company a month to find a new maintenance contractor. She was giving it one opportunity to get things right.