P PUBLIC INQUIRY
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Surrey Herbs loses licence for poor maintenance togs
rogerbrownfarbi.co.uk SURREY HERBS has had its 0-licence revoked after it failed to show an improvement in its maintenance-related record keeping following a public inquiry three years ago.
Following a July public inquiry, Miles Dorrington, South Eastern and Metropolitan Deputy Traffic Commissioner (DTC), found that Rashpal Athwal, sole director of the Swanley, Kent-based operator, was no longer fit to hold an 0-licence. The company, which was authorised to run three vehicles, had previously had its licence curtailed at an inquiry into maintenance-related matters in 2007 However, in an investigation into the firm's maintenance record, carried out in November 2009, VOSA vehicle examiner Stephen Butt said he had found no evidence that forward planning of maintenance was being carried out.
He discovered examples of preventative maintenance inspection (PM!) sheets being incorrectly filled in including failure to fill in the roadworthiness declaration and PMT sheets that did not show rectification work.
In one instance drivers had described on their defect reporting sheets a lighting defect on one truck that had continued for many successive days, but which had not been rectified by the firm.
The operator had an MoT firsttime pass rate of only 33%.
Athwal told the hearing he had checked the PMI forms, but did not check to see if the signature to the roadworthiness declaration was present.
However, the DTC said there was little, if any, evidence to show that vehicles had been properly maintained or even maintained at all for long periods of time.
He added: -The evidence from the vehicle examiner showed no improvement in maintenancerelated record keeping since the last public inquiry."