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Not fit to stay in the industry
Page 31
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A haulier has lost his licence after failing to show up at his fifth public inquiry. The TC concluded that he hardly had a system at all.
A BIRMINGHAM haulier has lost his licence and has been disqualified indefinitely from holding an 0-licence after being called to his fifth public inquiry.
Handsworth-based Kuldev Singh Oakhal, trading as Premier Transport Services, held an international licence for nine vehicles and two trailers. He had been called before West Midlands Traffic Commissioner David Dixon at a Birmingham disciplinary inquiry, but failed to appear.
The TC said Oakhal had been called to four previous public inquiries. At the most recent, in February, the TC had been concerned about drivers' hours as no tachograph charts had been made available. Oakhal had claimed they had been stolen from his car.
Traffic examiner Robert Lees said he had visited Oak hes premises in April when 120 tachograph charts were produced.Subsequent analysis of these records had revealed a number of offences by six drivers.
Irish offences There were instances of unrecorded distance, with the larger gaps tending to be in relation to driving in the Irish Republic. One driver had been driving a 17-tonne vehicle when his entitlement to drive that class of vehicle expired in September 2004.
An unauthorised operating centre had been used, and 15 occasions were identified when periods of duty were shown as beginning and ending in Oldbury.
There were a further 20 cases where the distance traces and odometer readings did not match. One driver had said he did not use the tachograph on the docks when going on and off • Distance traces did not match odometer readings ferries Another, who had committed 41/2-hour driving offences, had simply said that he was "pushed for time".
Lees considered that Oakhal lacked a robust system for checking tachograph charts and drivers' licences. There was no system for training drivers and Oakhal did not appear to understand distance traces.
The TC said he was getting the picture that Oakhal hardly had a system at all. Lees confirmed that it was -a bit hit and miss".
The TC remarked that there were 11 cases of missing mileage, some of them representing quite substantial gaps and some of which were likely to be hiding drivers' hours offences.
There had been several previous public inquiries, he concluded; the most recent only six weeks before the traffic examiner's visit, so Oakhal must have been more aware than most operators that he must do things by the book. He was quite clearly not a fit person to be a transport manager or an operator. •