Granting a new one-vehicle licence to kJ Catering, of Sheffield.
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North Eastern Deputy TC Mark Hinchliffe remarked that the public will not tolerate dangerous HGVs. The company had applied for a licence for four vehicles and two trailers. It had been operating under interim authority and the Deputy TC was concerned about its maintenance record and the fact that director Alan Jones had been connected with a previous =many which had gone into liquidation.
Vehicle examiner Norman White told a Leeds public inquiry that since May 1999 one immediate and two delayed prohibitions had been imposed on the company's vehicle. There was an invoice for an inspection carried out by the maintenance contractor but there was no inspection record. Insecure body panels noted on a defect notice in November had not been rectified and that had led to the imposition of the immediate prohibition in December Initially denying that it was the same body panel, Jones subsequently said that the vehicle examiner had not pointed out the defect. Jones maintained that the vehicle had gone through a full test without anything being done to the panel.
In reply to the Deputy TC, he said that after defects were rectified he did not keep the driver's defect reports, adding that he had been a transport manager for 38 years and had never knowingly sent out a dangerous vehicle. None of his vehicles had ever caused an accident.
However. Jones promised to keep defect reports and inspection records, and to have the vehicle inspected every eight weeks. Asked about the failure of AJ Fruit Co. he said it had traded successfully since February 1982 but incurred a lot of bad debts.
The Deputy TC said he understood that the DTI did not plan to act against Jones or the other director of that company. On the information produced. AJ Catering had sufficient funds to operate one vehicle.