Records required from new contract
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• A disciplinary inquiry for Carry. phone Transport of Rochdale was adjourned so that it can produce inspection records for its three trucks from its new maintenance contractor. North Western LA Martin Albu indicated that he proposed to reduce the authorisation on the company's licence from six to four vehicles, cutting the dura. tion to expire next March.
Vehicle examiner Ivan Coupe said that he had carried out a maintenance investigation following an accident in which a wheel came off. He inspected two vehicles, issuing one with an immediate prohibition for defects in the rear suspension. This vehicle had been inspected 11 days before by a mobile mechanic who handled the company's maintenance. The inspection records lacked detail and signatures.
No inspection sheet was completed when vehicles were prepared for annual test and there were no inspection records for trailers. Since May 1994 four immediate prohibitions had been imposed on three vehicles and a trailer for serious defects. Director Frank Harrison said the vehicles had been inspected every six weeks by the mobile mechanic.
The company had now changed maintenance contractors Harrison had introduced a drivers' daily nil defect reporting system on the recommendation of the Road Haulage Association. Loose wheelnuts that led to a prohibition in December were something he considered the driver should have picked up.
Albu pointed out that three vehicles had failed their annual test on first presentation and a fourth had to be presented four times before it passed.
Agreeing that he had been connected with Key Warehousing, which had gone into voluntary liquidation, Harrison said that he had set Carryphone up in February 1994. Draft accounts revealed the company had made a small profit in its first year and the volume of trade was improving. It had recently negotiated an overdraft facility of 410,000.
Albu said he was not sure the company had the necessary finance for six vehicles. He needed to see that the new maintenance arrangements were more effective than the last,