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TC slams worst-ever case of drivers' hours abuse
Page 31
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A couple are banned from holding an 0-licence indefinitely as their
business folds with E700,000-worth of debts. Mike Jewell reports.
A HUSBAND-AND-WIFE team whose business collapsed in February with debts of £700,000 have been taken off the road after they admitted that they took no control of the operation,which had been run by managers on their behalf The company's drivers regularly worked for more than 20 hours at a time and its owner was -surly and unresponsive" to the Traffic Commissioner.
North-Western TC Beverley Bell revoked the licence held by Oldham-based NTC (Conservatories). She also indefinitely disqualified the company and its directors, Terence and Bernadette McNicholas, from holding or obtaining an 0-licence in any Traffic Area.
Traffic examiner Aidan McCabe told a Golborne, Wigan. disciplinary inquiry he conducted an investigation in April 2005 which revealed that the systems for tachograph compliance were lacking. He advised the company on how to improve it. When he returned in December that year, however, he found a series of offences leading to the conviction of the company and its drivers.
The TC was told the company went into liquidation in February with trade debts of £450,000 and a Crown debt of £250,000.
Terence McNicholas said he had been unwell since the licence was granted, and he had left things to the company's managers, whom he had paid very well. When he signed the licence application form, he did not really know what he was signing and had added his signature simply because he was told it was all right to do so, despite never having read it. He added that his wife had never played any part in the company at all.
The TC said that the company had chosen not to follow the traffic examiner's advice. Never had she dealt with such a serious case of drivers' hours abuse, and never had she dealt with a company which had shown such disregard for road safety or the safety of the staff employed to drive the vehicles She had concluded that neither director gave any thought to 0-licence compliance and that, as a result, road safety and fair competition were unduly jeopardised. The hours offences by drivers Wayne Burns and Paul Hopkin spoke for themselves in that they regularly included duty periods of more than 20 hours. Such an attitude displayed a lack of fitness by both directors. Bell said she had not been impressed one iota byTerence McNicholas, finding him surly, unresponsive, threatening in his demeanour and disrespectful of the authority of the role of the TC.
In making the revocation and disqualification orders, the TC said she was not prepared to allow the McNicholases anywhere near a goods vehicle over 3.5 tonnes in the future, •