Ten-Ten 0-licence is cut for Kenneth Wilson Holdings
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• The vehicle authorisation on the licence held by Kenneth Wilson Holdings for 71 trucks and 53 trailers has been cut to 10 vehicles and 10 trailers, after it was admitted that only four of the company's vehicles were specified on its '0' Licence. Eastern Licensing Authority Brigadier Compton Boyd, however, has taken no disciplinary action against KWH's licence following overloading convictions.
The LA was told that the company had a turnover of 2600 million and that its fleet had been drastically reduced because there was not a lot of profit in grain haulage, the work having been passed out to third party hauliers.
Frank Reed, a director of Kenneth Wilson Agriculture, said the convictions had arisen because of problems of hauling gain from farms, in that the specific weight of grain could vary by some 30%. Only 1% of farms had weighbridges had the vehicles operated at times when public weighbridges were not open. A considerable amount of money had been spent on on-board weighing devices and as axle weighing devices had been found to he less than satisfactory the company's vehicles were currently equipped with pressure devices costing £200 a piece which were accurate to within 300kg of gross weight. Grain was now tested before loading to avoid overloading, provided that the farmer loaded the vehicle as instructed, but there were some problems in that direction, farmers being independently minded people.
Freight Transport Associations' regional engineer George Croft said an FTA project had shown on-board weighing devices to be ineffective and unreliable.
Boyd said that though he did not condone such offences he had to look at the practicalities and it appeared to him that the company was taking all due care to avoid similar offences.