Walker revival row
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A Government-appointed !ssor has been called in to I determine whether the essor to a recently coled Birmingham haulage ness will get an operator's )ce.
Test Midland Licensing hority Ronald Jackson is fing financial evidence to a lartment of Transport as3r called in after the Road lage Association and the asport and General
-kers Union objected to ker Brothers (Birmingham)
Ltd's application for an eightvehicle national 0-licence.
The company has been formed following the collapse last December of 42-vehicle Walker Brothers (Transport) Ltd in a period which saw several job losses, company collapses and depot closures in the Birmingham area.
Malcolm Walker, a director, blamed the collapse of the old company on competition from other hauliers in the spot hire market, unprofitable warehousing, too many employees, and excessive overheads.
The new company is to be engaged solely in contract hire, and he said it would be successful because a similar operation in the East Midlands, Walker Bros (Nottingham) Ltd, is very successful.
Questioned by Michael Carless for the RHA, Walker said he had not realised the arrangement was illegal until a week ago. lie had thought there was no problem as the two companies had common directors and he was the nominated transport manager of both.
He agreed a statement of the affairs of Walker Bros (Transport) showed a deficiency of £442,321. The list of creditors included many subcontractors.
Walker denied the company had been pushing work out to other hauliers because it could not get the right rate for the job, but he agreed that debts with unsecured creditors totalled £166,339.
Walker agreed that while he was chairman of the Birmingham Training Group he had borrowed 287,006 on his own authority and without the knowledge of the other partners to prop up Walker Bros (Transport). He accepted that as a personal liability and is repaying the debt at the rate of £8,000 a month. The payments are being made by the Nottingham company.
Dennis Mills, for the TGWU, said it had known nothing about the liquidation of Walker Bros (Transport) until a "heavy gang" had arrived demanding that the drivers remove their belongings from the cabs because they were taking the vehicles over.
The union rarely objects to licence applications, but in this case it felt it had to as it did not want the same situation to arise again.