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Reputation at risk if standards slip again
Page 24
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TC grants authorisation increase after hearing transport manager had acted to correct 'dreadful' situation.
A MIDLANDS operator narrowly escaped having action against its licence after a Traffic Commissioner accepted that steps had been taken to correct a "dreadful" situation. Offences included loose wheelnuts, high levels of prohibition notices and poor vehicle test results.
West Midlands Traffic Commissioner Nick Jones granted an application by Smethwick-based Dunn Brothers (1995) to increase its authorisation from eight vehicles to 13 vehicles and seven trailers.
The TC concluded the company's current transport manager had taken steps to put a "dreadful" situation right. However, he warned that if there were problems at the next VOSA inspection. there was likely to be severe regulatory action, and the transport manager's repute would be at stake.
For Dunn Brothers, Michael Carless said that none of the company's directors were present at the public inquiry because they were otherwise engaged. The TC said that it would have been better if one of the directors had turned up for the inquiry.
The purpose of the application was to transfer five vehicles and seven trailers from the company's Welsh licence to the West Midland licence.
Transport manager Mark Lees said he had been in the role since June 2008. Around two-thirds of the operation was in England and the rest in Wales.
The previous transport manager had not been employed by the company. but ran his own operation, subcontracting work from Dunn Brothers.
lie agreed with the TC that a 66% roadside prohibition rate and a 37.5% failure rate at annual test was poor.
He also accepted that Welsh-based vehicles were sometimes parked up in Birmingham, but he denied a traffic examiner's assertion that they were being operated from that site.
Accepting that there had been a problem with loose wheel nuts, Lees said he had changed the maintenance supplier, and the tyre contractors now did two fleet checks a week, not one.
He gave a series of undertakings in relation to vehicle maintenance, including the fact that there would be quality control audits from a trade association every six months.
He said that since they had changed their maintenance provider, they had a 100% pass rate at annual vehicle test. They now had markers on wheel nuts to show whether they were loose.
Since the VOSA maintenance investigation in September, live vehicles had been stopped at the roadside with only one prohibition being issued.