Meat vehicle's licence restored
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A Birmingham company whose licence was curtailed from three vehicles to two on maintenance grounds in March has had the third vehicle restored after a promise that only two vehicles would be used on any one day.
When Euro Halal appeared before West Midland Traffic Commtssioner David Dixon, vehicle examiner Chris Ross said the two vehicles had been examined and found to be in good order as they were relatively new.
However, Ross did not consider the company was capable of operating more than two vehicles. They were left in a council car park next door to the operating centre as the parking area had been taken up by the installation of a fridge.
Director Zahid Yailoob said he was in the process of buying out the partner who had been responsible for the transport operation in March. Once the buy-out was completed all their various activities would be merged into one under a sister company, called Halal Convenience Foods, and a fresh licence would be applied for.
Yacloob added that Euro Halal was no longer trading in the sense that it was not buying and selling meat. The transport function had been taken over by the sister company in 1999, though the vehicles were still owned by Euro Halal, which employed and paid the drivers.
The fridge in the yard was only temporary, he added. The company was negotiating to acquire a site in Quinton where there was plenty of space for two trucks to be parked. They hoped to move to Quinton by the beginning of September at the latest.
Third-party hauliers could not be used because the halal meat might be contaminated in a religious sense by other meat that had been carried, Yarpob said.
Hauliers would not cater for halal meat alone because it was a specialised market that was too small.
Increasing the authorisation, the TC said he was prepared to overlook the question of the operating centre until the end of next month. But he warned Yacrob that if vehicles were parked away from the authorised operating centre after that time the licence would be revoked.
Dixon concluded that be had heard of the company's expertise in halal meat, but it had not been as good at running trucks. This was something that it had to get right, he said. The attention to transport had to be as good as that given to its meat operation.