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156 
I CASE THREE
Page 24
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Apology to firm wrongly called to inquiry
A TRAFFIC COMMISSIONER has apologised to a company that had wrongly been called to a public inquiry concerning an application it had made to increase its licence authority.
Beverley Bell, the North Western Traffic Commissioner, had written to the firm suggesting the application could be refused, as well as issuing a warning about maintenance problems. After receiving the letter, Widnes-based Kenneth Acock Transport, trading as Transworld Transport, decided to withdraw its application, but will now resubmit it after assurances from the TC that it's likely to be accepted.
The firm has a licence for 26 vehicles and 43 trailers, and had withdrawn its request to increase it to 40 vehicles and 50 trailers.
At the inquiry, vehicle examiner Colin Haselden told the TC that he examined three vehicles and three trailers during a maintenance investigation in September 2007, issuing a delayed prohibition to a trailer because the ABS system was giving spurious signals.
The stated inspection period had been exceeded a number of times by up to three weeks for vehicles, and, once, by more than 17 weeks for a trailer. Over the past five years, there had been two immediate and three delayed prohibitions, one of which was marked for a missing ABS lead. The annual test pass rate was 87.04%. The forward planner was not completed for the coming six months.
For the firm, James Backhouse said it had now obtained a new contract with an existing customer, and would have to make a fresh application for the additional vehicles and trailers. The company would be joining the Freight Transport Association (VIA) and would involve it on a consultancy and audit basis. A copy of the FTA's audit report would be submitted with the application.
The TC said that if all was in order she would grant the increase in the licence authority.
Making it plain the company should not have been called to public inquiry, and apologising for the inconvenience, the TC said she had been dealing with the matter by correspondence and the firm had been erroneously listed for public inquiry.