Expansion plans put on hold until the New Year
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• A company which wanted to double its fleet to pay for its new depot and improved maintenance facilities will have to wait until January to see if the additional vehicles and trailers will be granted.
Sanwa Transport, of I3ilston, West Midlands wanted to increase the authorisation on its licence from three vehicles and three trailers to six vehicles and six trailers at a Birmingham public inquiry. In August West Midland Traffic Commissioner John Mervyn Pugh adjourned consideration of disciplinary action against the company on maintenance grounds, to enable the company to put all its vehicles and trailers through fresh annual tests.
For the company, Andrew Fletcher said it had moved to a large yard and improved its maintenance facilities, the cost of which could only be met by the operation of the additional vehicles and trailers.
After the TC said he needed to be satisfied the company could maintain its existing fleet safely. Fletcher said the company was "between a rock and a hard place". He maintained that it could not afford to install an inspection pit, costing up to £15,000, until the extra vehicles were working. Giving the company a serious warning, Mervyn Pugh said he was not persuaded to grant the additional vehicles at the moment.