Licence renewed despite defects
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/Maintenance problems brought North Devon before Western Traffic Commissioner Major General John Carpenter when the company sought to renew its PSV Operator's Licence.
DTp vehicle examiner Brian Harley said that 18 prohibition notices, including 11 immediate, had been imposed on the company's 90 vehicles since 1987. In the same period there had been 28 defect notices.
A school bus checked at Ilfracombe had a fuel leak and a windscreen wiper blade was missing.
Managing director Andrew Vernon said that disciplinary procedures had been introduced for fitters who did not report faults immediately they were spotted. The company was hoping to extend those procedures to drivers.
For North Devon, Sarah Cornish said that there were always vandalism problems on school buses, and that accounted for a large proportion of the damage to the inside of the vehicles.
Fuel leaks were a common problem which could occur en route, and the windscreen wiper of the vehicle checked at Ilfracombe had been repaired the day before only to come off during the course of the journey.
Renewing North Devon's licence, Carpenter said he was satisfied that the company's maintenance system was theoretically up to standard. However, there was a need to apply stricter supervision, he said.
Vandalism was something that had a tremendous effect on operating costs, said Carpenter.
In the end it was bound to affect the customer, as inevitably fares had to rise to cover those costs, he said.