Trailer problems left for too long
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• Maintenance problems, mainly on trailers, have led to the licence held by Nursling, Southampton-based JF Alford Transport being cut from 50 vehicles and 65 trailers 45 vehicles and 55 trailers.
Evidence was given by vehicle examiners that the trailer inspec tion intervals appeared to be excessive. Since October 1991 Alford's vehicles and trailers had received 30 immediate and 34 delayed prohibitions, six of which were subsequently varied when additional defects were found. About two-thirds of the prohibitions related to trailers. The age profile of the fleet was high and consequently a greater degree of maintenance was required.
For Alford, Jacqueline Beech said it was not a company that had a careless disregard for maintenance. However, she conceded that it had never complied with what she described as the unrealistic stated inspection period for trailers.
Managing director James Alford said he was not paperwork orientated and he left it to other people. He had not looked at the statement of intent before to the licence application was sent off.
A lot of the early prohibitions were imposed on bulk tipping trailers carrying scrap metal, work they had packed up four years ago, said Alford, and the company's work was now all con
tainer traffic. They had trailers standing in the docks for long periods, in one case for more than a year, as they were used by the container companies for storage, and they obviously did not check those trailers. Until recently much of the work had involved pulling trailers belonging to other companies. He pointed out that trailer inspection periods had been reduced in accordance with the vehicle examiners' recommendations.
Cutting the licence, Madrell said there had been something of an ongoing problem which should have been addressed sooner. Prohibitions must have been arriving at the company's offices with disturbing regularity.