Probation time for firm in 'shambles'
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• A partner in a Leicester haulage company that lost its licence at a disciplinary inquiry in Cambridge later set up another company and succeeded in obtaining a licence.
Fazel Laher, Dilip Parmar and Harshil Tanna. trading as Fast Freight. of Catherine Street, 111111X1,
Leicester, were called before Eastern Traffic Commissioner Brigadier Compton Boyd. He was also considering an application for a new international licence for four vehicles and a trailer by Fast Freight Ltd, of the same address, whose managing director is Parmar.
For the two companies, Ian Rothera said they were effectively one and the same.
Certain difficulties had arisen concerning Laher, who had been running the business. and the other partners were unaware of his whereabouts. It was acknowledged that things had got into a bit of a mess, with drivers hours' and tachograph convictions and the use of an unauthorised operating centre.
Boyd commented that there was "a whole raft of things; practically the whole book", DOT traffic examiner Roderick
Bidgood said Catherine Street was being used as an operating centre for two vehicles despite permission being refused and the partnership business did not have a current CPC holder.
The Commissioner pointed out that the saga had been going on for about two years— the firm's transport manager, Malcolm Fryer, wrote in November 1995 to report that he was no longer on the staff.
Rothera said that Fryer, who had resigned because he was unhappy with the way Laher was running the business, had rejoined on a part-time basis with the intention of becoming fulltime at the end of August. He conceded that the partners were operating a drawbar trailer without licence authority.
Boyd said that convictions con
cerning drivers* hours at Leicester had been dealt with by means of a warning letter.
However, he added that subsequent convictions for two daily rest offences, the use of a vehicle on an international journey when holding only a national licence, an insurance offence relating to a goods vehicle, and a VED offence, had not been reported to him. The whole thing was a "shambles".
Parmar said he had learnt a lot in the past year.
Revoking the partnership licence and granting the company a licence for one vehicle and one trailer only, Boyd said it had to go through a period of probation. He might consider an additional vehicle if checks by vehicle and traffic examiners in six weeks' time proved to be satisfactory.