Pharmachem suffers vehicle cuts
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• Maintenance problems have led to the licence held by M & A Pharmachem of Westhoughton, Bolton, being renewed for five vehicles only, and not the 10 vehicles and four trailers applied for.
The company appeared before North Western Licensing Authority Martin Albu at a Manchester public inquiry.
Albu said that a DOT vehicle examiner had found four vehicles with defects and no facilities for carrying out maintenance and inspections.
Director Francis Armstrong said the company had held a licence for 22 years. New arrangements had been made for an outside contractor to carry out regular maintenance work at intervals of six to eight weeks.
Asked what happened if defects occurred between inspections, Armstrong said that his drivers had been issued with books in which they could note defects. The company had accounts with the main Ford dealers in St Helens and Preston and the drivers could use those garages if they had problems out on the road.
Pharmachem had scrapped three vehicles and acquired a
spare but it had -1111Mr
on the licence. It had let the other vehicles go to scrap without removing their licences. Armstrong said he had owned the spare vehicle for only six weeks but Albu pointed out that it must be specified on the licence before the company could use it. It was illegal to run the vehicle without a licence identity disc, he said. Albu also emphasised that the company was not supposed to let the discs in the scrapped vehicles go out of its control.
Questioned by Albu, Armstrong said that there was no longer any requirement for trailers and was currently operating five vehicles.
Granting renewal for five vehicles only, Albu said that the company had scrapped vehicles and changed its maintenance arrangements without telling the Traffic Area and it owned a vehicle that it had not specified on the licence. He issued a strong warning that Pharmachem must ensure that it complied with the licensing regulations in the future.