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152 
ore doubts over remote managers
Page 8
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re by Mike Jewell
Four operators using transport managers arranged through under-fire agency Trans Consult mist watt to see if they are acceptable to North Eastern Traffic Commissioner Tom Macartney.
Anthony Blake, the transport manager supplied by Trans Consult, is the nominated transport manager on all the licences concerned. In June the TC held that a similar arrangement with Blake by Brian Teece, trading as HT Transport, was unacceptable and did not meet the requirements of the legislation i CM 18-24 July). More recently, North Western TC Beverley Bell refused to sanction similar arrangements through Trans Consult (CM12-18 Sept).
Paul Carless, for the operators, said their track record was as good as could be expected. Blake, who lives in Manchester, said that he now visited each operator every month was in touch with them once or twice a week. In addition he was available round the clock to give advice, although he admitted that he worked as a driver at weekends.
Paul Sedgwick said that he had been unhappy with the first transport manager provided by Trans Consult. That manager was replaced by Blake and Sedgwick added that he was getting satisfactory service from him. In reply to the TC, Sedgwick said his contract was with Trans Consult, which he paid £120 a month, and not with Blake. David Edginton said that his contract was also with Trans Consult; he thought he was paying the company 125 a week.
Trans Consult's managing director. Alec Hayden. said that his firm had arranged 45 transport managers for 105 licences up and down the country, covering about 180 vehicles.
The transport managers concerned were not his employees, but were independent transport consultants who had a direct agreement with the operators and an administrative agreement with Trans Consult, Hayden added. None of the operators concerned had ever been called to a disciplinary inquiry over maintenance or drivers' hours. He felt that it was a better arrangement than an owner-driver with his own CPC or the employment of a hilltime transport manager.
In reply to the TC, Hayden said that Trans Consult did not provide transport managers for operators; the company simply introduced them. He maintained that Trans Consult was not an agency but a management services company.
The TC is to announce his decision in writing at a future date.
• The TC was considering taking disciplinary action against the licences held by David Casey, trading as Algos Transport, of Atherton; Paul Sedgwick, trading as Sedgwick Haulage, of Holmfirth; Catherine Ramsden and Navid Masud, trading as Elite Transport, of Dewsbury; and David Edginton, trading as Edginton Transport, of Bradford, He was also considering an application for a licence by Jack Rawson Haulage, trading as Elite Transport Services, a company formed by Ramsden to replace her partnershrp licence.
Two other firms had been called to appear at the inquiry but they said they had stopped using the CPC holders supplied by Trans Consult,