RNA defends procedures si The Road Haulage Association has hit
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back after Eastern Traffic Commissioner Geoffrey Simms criticised its membership application procedures.
Simms' comments came at a public inquiry where he stripped two Greek-owned haulage firms of their licences. Hilcon Road Transport UK, formerly Tranzitus UK, and Dema Transport UK were both members of the RHA.
The firms had operating centres at Brentwood, but Simms said there was no evidence that vehicles on the two licences ever came to the UK, or that they had been taxed or tested.
He suspected the company's actions were merely a means of overcoming the difficulty of obtaining an operating licence in Greece.
Simms was "greatly disappointed to discover assistance (had been) given by the RHA, itself a statutory objector under the 1995 act".
He said that the company's motives for joining should have been quite obvious had the appropriate checks been made, and urged the trade association to "review its application procedures".
However, RHA company secretary James Falkner questioned how the firms received licences in the first place. He maintained that strict monitoring of all its 10,000 members was tough.
"We keep a keen eye on the granting and renewal of 0licences and will refuse membership or throw people out if necessary," he says.
"But if we turn somebody down we have to give good reason and mere suspicion is perhaps not enough," Faulkner concluded.
Last week CM reported that three Greek-owned companies had lost an appeal at the Transport Tribunal to re-instate their licences (CM1-7 Feb).