Second chance given
Page 18
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• Derbyshire owner-driver George Warrington left the haulage industry in March 1987 because of financial difficulties and started up again in October of that year.
Now he has been given a chance to re-establish himself, although Eastern Licensing Authority Brigadier Compton Boyd has described Warrington's record as one of the worst he had seen from a small-fleet haulier.
Warrington, from Ashbourne, held an international licence for three vehicles and two trailers. He appeared at disciplinary proceedings in Nottingham.
Boyd said that in May 1986 Warrington had been convicted of not paying the correct amount of vehicle excise duty, and in January 1987 he had been convicted of using a vehicle without an excise licence.
Between 1985 and 1987 he had been convicted of nine drivers' hours and tachograph offences, and a driver employed by him had been convicted of three such offences. There had also been a number of road traffic offences.
In February of this year the one vehicle and trailer now in possession were both given immediate prohibitions. Evidence was given by a vehicle examiner that in May the vehicle and trailer were in a reasonable state of repair, given their type and age.
Commenting on the prohibition on the tractor, Warrington denied that the wheel nuts had been loose. He said that it was an American Mack tractor with spoke wheels, and when the nuts were tapped they sounded loose but were not.
As far as the trailer was concerned, he had checked the tyres before leaving a quarry but as there were 18 tyres he had not noticed from the feel of the vehicle on the journey that one of the tyres had become deflated. Warrington said that the excise offences arose after he got into financial difficulty through a customer in Southampton going into liquidation, owing him 27,000.
Another financial set-back had led to his decision to cease operating last March. He had been offered work in October by another haulier and had been paying off the fines and back-duty at 225 a month. He had had no convictions between 1973 and 1985.
Curtailing the licence to one vehicle and trailer, and directing that it expire next July, Boyd said there were reasonable reasons for the prohibitions and he noted that the vehicle was now in a satisfac tory condition.
Warrington had made a nett profit of £8,400 over the past six months, his debts appeared to be controlled debts and there was some hope for the future.
His decision, however, was conditional upon the production of a maintenance contract with a garage within 14 days.