Hutchison escapes
Page 19
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A LEADING Scottish independent has been granted a stay of execution over its maintenance standards.
Though far from happy with the record of Hutchison's Coaches (Overtown) Ltd over the past three years, the Scottish Traffic Commissioners decided to take no action against the company's 40-vehicle psv operator's licence because it is due for renewal in three months' time.
Evidence was given by a senior vehicle examiner concerning the imposition of prohibitions on the company's vehicles since 1979, the most recent being three immediate prohibitions issued during a technical check in October 1983.
It was said that the periods between inspection varied between four and eight weeks and none of the defects recorded on the prohibitions had been detected by the company's own staff.
There was no criticism of the number of maintenance staff or of the facilities, but the company had failed to implement a regular inspection routine despite a written warning and undertakings given in 1980.
General manager Stewart Anderson said that since 1980, several fitters had been replaced and a fleet engineer had been taken on. He had left things to the fleet engineer and he was satisfied that the work had been carried out though the paper work had not been kept up to scratch.
As general manager, he did not have the time to get involved with the details of such things as drivers' defect reports.
The inspection routine had been disrupted on occasions because of absenteeism among the maintenance staff. For the future, a rolling-road brake tester had been installed, the drivers' defect report system had been altered, and checks would be carried out from time to time to see that drivers were reporting defects properly.
He accepted that things had not been done properly in the past. He said he had learned a lot from advice from Traffic Area staff and he gave an undertaking that things would be different in the future.