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Two-year ban for haulier who shunned warning
Page 17
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A Scottish haulier has been booted out of the industry after he was described as having a "totally cavalier attitude to the requirements of operator licensing."
Renfrewshire-based Derek Meikle. trading as Derek Meikle Transport, had been called before Scottish Traffic Commissioner Michael Betts at an Edinburgh disciplinary inquiry for a number of serious offences including running the business without a proper transport manager.
Revoking Meikle's licence and banning him from holding one for two years, Betts said that a previous public inquiry had warned Meikle over a number of issues.
Yet within three months of the last hearing Meikle again changed his operating centre and his maintenance arrangements without notifying the Traffic Area Office, It appeared that at the same time he lost any
meaningful contact with his transport manager, Alan Stirling.
He also employed driver James Lang who interfered with his tachograph for two and a half months before being caught—something Meikle had again been warned about at a previous Pl.
Meikle had also knowingly allowed someone else to use one of the trucks on his licence and exercised no control over it, said the TC. He added that Meikie had consistently refused to co-operate with the Vehicle Inspectorate's investigations.
He gave Meikle no credit for the possible arrangement with another man, Robert Pickering. to act as his transport manager. It turned out that Pickering had contacted Meikle but that they had not even met.
Holding that Stirling no longer met the requirement to be of good repute, the TC said he had failed in the commitments he had given the DTC in May 2001. It would appear that Stirling carried out those duties for only three months after that date, but failed to act responsibly by notifying the Traffic Area Office that he was no longer involved with the licence.