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warned On second inquiry
Page 18
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RP Winder (Wholesale Meats), of Blackpool, was warned that further problems would lead to serious action being taken against its licence when five vehicles were suspended for two weeks by North Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner Patrick Mulvenna.
The company, which holds a licence for 20 vehicles and three trailers, was called before the Deputy Commissioner at a Trafford disciplinary inquiry.
The Deputy Commissioner heard that 10 immediate and three delayed prohibitions, nine of which were marked showing a significant maintenance failure, had been issued since January 1995. In addition, the company had been convicted of using an untested trailer, of having no fuel cap on a diesel tank and of two overloading offences.
Traffic examiner Ian Webster said in July he examined the tachograph charts for two vehicles for April and May. The charts for the artic showed no distinct speed limiting cut-off, with speeds of up to 110km/h being recorded. The charts for a 17-tonner showed the speed traces had been correctly regulated from 23 April onwards. There was apparent distance unrecorded
on some journeys and he had found 52 apparent offences of falsification, all of which related to the same driver. He believed the driver concerned was starting early and not putting the chart into the tachograph until after making his delivery. There were also a number Of apparent offences of driving for more than 4.5 hours without the required break and a number of charts missing.
Transport manager John Brant said every chart was checked but they had not previously checked the distance recorded by the V-trace against the odometer readings. Drivers had been given a warning about removing fuses from the speed limiter and replacing them with a blown one.
Director Spencer Little said an additional driver had been taken on so Brant could concentrate on his duties as transport manager. The company did not have any runs where the drivers were pushed to the hours limits. Improvements had been made to its maintenance system and action taken to prevent further overloading offences.
For the company, James Backhouse said it had a pretty good system for checking tachograph charts and that the driver concerned had deliberately set out to hide what he was doing from the company, which was as much a victim as the enforcement authorities.
Though saying he did not consider the company had been at fault in relation to the tachograph matters, the Deputy Commissioner pointed out that this was its second public inquiry at which maintenance had been an issue.