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148 
Abbey northern loss
Page 7
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• One of Britain's best-known car transporters, Abbey Hill, has lost its 80-vehicle North East operators licence because its drivers have persistently ignored warnings about breaking speed limits.
To get the licence back, Abbey Hill was told it would have to demonstrate that its drivers intend to keep within the law. If not, the firm could lose its licence permanently, north eastern licensing authority Frederick Whalley warned last week.
Whalley has already suspended the HGV licences of the company's 11 Leeds-based drivers after tachograph checks showed they had consistently broken the speed limit (CM 10-16 March). A twelfth driver, who had previously been in trouble with the LA, had his licence revoked for five years.
For the company, Colin Ward said the new owner, Canadian group Scott Hospitality, could not answer for anything that happened before July 1987. All possible steps had been taken to solve the problem, but the company was governed by agreements with the Transport and General Workers' Union covering driver employment, pay and conditions.
Abbey Hill was bordering on chaos, with a very insecure workforce when the new owners took over, said managing director Wayne Denton. The management team and methods of operation and administration had all been drastically changed, he stressed.
General transport manager Brian Griffin said the company did not condone speeding, and staff had been told convictions would now mean instant sacking. Since the last action by the LA four drivers had been suspended for two weeks and had final warnings. He agreed that the method of payment — based on multiples of 25-mile (40Ian) units in an eight-hour day — could be an incentive to speed, but claimed it did not work that way.
Abbey Hill's new vehicles are being fitted with speed governors and existing vehicles would have them fitted when possible, said Griffin. In addition all tachograph charts are now being sent for analysis.
The LA accepted that there had been a change in the construction of the business, and that the new owner was showing more responsibility than its predecessor: drivers were under stricter control.
The purpose of licensing was safety, he said. Speeding was particularly dangerous, as recent accidents had shown, and it was his duty to stop this.