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Sheffield firm with 'stupid drivers' escapes with warning at third inquiry
Page 39
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A SHEFFIELD operator facing its third public inquiry escaped with a warning after the Traffic Commissioner accepted that it had been let down by "stupid drivers". A&ETransport,with a licence for 41 vehicles and 65 trailers, had been called before North Eastern Traffic Commissioner Tom Macartney at a Leeds disciplinary inquiry. It had appeared at previous public inquiries in May 2000 and May 2004.
Vehicle examiner John Williams said despite having all the necessary systems in place, the company's vehicles continued to attract prohibitions. 'there having been four since the last public inquiry — two of them S-marked, one for a missing ISO cable.When asked to put the cable back in, the driver incorrectly put it into the dummy socket.
MD Maurice Ducker said most of the fleet was two to four years old. A vehicle that had attracted convictions for loose wheel nuts and an axle overload had been driven by an agency driver. The regular driver had been sacked because he should have seen that the wheel nut markers had moved the previous day. All the drivers were trained in the use of ISO cables: he added.The driver of the vehicle concerned had removed it because of a tight turn into a customer's premises. He felt the driver had panicked when stopped. He was subsequently sacked.
Ducker said the company had to employ 1010 15 drivers before getting one who did the job right.
TheTC said the company was doing pretty much all it could and it seemed to him that it had been let down. He added: "How you control stupid drivers I don't know, but you are doing all you can."