:ornish haulier's icence revoked
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'ORNISH haulage comy's appeal against the sion of the Western ity Licensing Authority .evoke its licence after .aring\before him for the nd time in 12 months, dismissed last week by Transport Tribunal.
or the company, lard Benney (Trans Ltd. of Helston, Mr lip Mott said that it 1..ared somewhat unjust ■ enalize the operator at first public inquiry by ailing the licence by four eles for six months and revoke the licence at the nd public inquiry, last ember, although the pany had demonstrated nprovement between the hearings. Moreover, the ity LA had seemed to be t..d that the company had before him on three sions though in fact this been only twice.
r Mott pointed out that poor record of the pany before the original iry was not in dispute, that inquiry had arisen le result of 12 prohibinotices and three conas imposed between and 1973.
'ter the inquiry in 1973, four prohibitions had imposed though four /ictions had been -ded – two for hours records offences And for using unauthorized ;les.
!.aling with the prohibisince 1973, Mr Mott ed the evidence of the ;le examiner at the ad inquiry to establish only two of the defects -ded could be cond as the result of made preventive mainten Le hours and records ces were committed by oyees and, though the )any must bear some )nsibility, it was not the same thing as an offence directly committed by the company.
On the first occasion that the company had used an unauthorized, vehicle — when it was being driven by Mr Benney himself — the operator had taken vehicles off the road and substituted the vehicle in question under the impression that he was allowed to do this as long as he did not exceed the number of vehicles authorized on his licence. However, the licence had no margin and so an offence had been committed.
On the second occasion, the operator had been unable to contact the area traffic office by phone earlier in the day to have the vehicle used included on the licence. He managed to contact the traffic office at 10.30 am but the vehicle had been stopped before that time and thus an offence had been recorded.
Mr Mott said that the business had expanded but it appeared that the administration had not kept pace with the expansion. There were signs that the administration side had now begun to catch up and he asked the Tribunal not to take the view that it could not look after any vehicles at all. The reduction in prohibition notices and the nature of the conviction since the first public inquiry had suggested that the company was improving though it was still not perfect.
The appeal was dismissed and the reasons for the dismissal are to be given later in writing.
Tribunal remits case to LA
On the same date, Mn. S. Digwa appealed successfully against a decision by the deputy North Western Licensing Authority to revoke his licence for one vehicle. The decision had been based on the absence of records and the fact that the vehicle was kept on a piece of waste ground with no facilities for maintenance.
At the appeal, Mr Digwa said that he could not produce records because the vehicle was awaiting its MoT test and had not been used on the road. He had now engaged to keep the vehicle in the local council's yard at Ashton-under-Lyne and he produced preventive maintenance sheets and 'other documents.
Mr G. D. Squibb, presiding, told him that the deputy LA had no opportunity to examine the records which had been produced when he gave his decision. In any case, the deputy LA had also been concerned that there were no premises in which to keep the vehicle and no maintenance arrangements.
Mr Squibb noted that the appellant depended on the vehicle for his livelihood and if the appeal was dismissed and a fresh application for a licence had to be made in the light of the changed circumstances now prevailing there would be some delay if the LA decided to grant it. While no direction was made about how the I.A should regard the case in the new circumstances, the Tribunal allowed the appeal in. as much as the matter was remitted to the LA for further consideration.