Transport Tribunal backs revocation
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• The Transport Tribunal has upheld the revo cation of Kirkcaldy-based Thomas Muir's licence for the second time, The company's licence for 58 vehicles and 18 trailers was initially revoked on maintenance grounds by Scottish Traffic Commissioner Michael Betts. That decision was upheld by the Tribunal but the Court of Session (the Scottish High Court) ruled that the case be reheard.
It indicated that there should be an assessment of the company's culpability for the prohibitions imposed: the Court of Session judges considered that revocation was too harsh.
Acting Scottish Deputy Commissioner Keith Waterworth again revoked the licence after hearing that 20 immediate and nine delayed prohibitions had been imposed on the company's vehicles and trailers since the original public inquiry—six of them for significant maintenance failures.
If there not been any change since the original public inquiry the Tribunal would have had to allow the company's appeal, said Waterworth.
However, if ever there was a case for licence revocation this was it—the fact there had been a further six significant failures of the maintenance system was of crucial importance.
He realised that revocation was a grave matter with serious financial and employment implications, but the preservation of proper discipline in the haulage industry was a matter of great public importance.
Steps could be taken to salvage something from the wreckage, he added. There was still work to be done and if Muir was not in business, the vehicles it had been operating and those who had been driving and maintaining them, would have a value to other operators.
Betts said that it might be time for a higher authority to review its approach to the licensing provisions as it 1,vould be unjust if operators in the Scottish Traffic Area were treated in a signifiWaterworth: If ever there was a cantly different way from their case for revocation this was it. colleagues in England and Wales.