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• Formal warning for 'road haulage star'
Page 9
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A SCOTTISH OPERATOR described by a Traffic Commissioner as "one of the stars within road haulage" has escaped a licence curtailment following a Vosa investigation which revealed that its vehicles were not being maintained satisfactorily.
Instead Paisley-based WH Malcolm was issued with a formal warning for roadworthiness and driver defect offences.
The company, which is licensed to operate 206 vehicles and 236 trailers, appeared at a public inquiry before Scottish TC Joan Aitken after a Vosa examiner reported that 40 prohibitions had been issued since September 2002. The problems had included an insecure trailer coupling device and a missing ISO cable.
WH Malcolm chief executive Andrew Malcolm said he was embarrassed to appear before the TC but he accepted that the 20% failure rate for its vehicles at annual test was unacceptable.
However, the TC said it was inappropriate to take stricter action and instead criticised the road haulage industry in general for its complacent attitude towards annual test failures. Aitken said Malcolm was not complacent and she was impressed with the operator's evidence to show that defects were kept to a minimum.
She added: "I concur with the judgement of the Vosa examiner that the systems put in place by this operator to ensure compliance with the licence undertakings in relation to roadworthiness, driver defect reporting and record keeping are excellent."
She noted that some of the prohibitions could have been prevented by greater diligence, but concluded:" While the prohibition history is starting to be numerically steep, the number of S-marked items [indicating a serious lapse in maintenance] is very low in relation to the size of this fleet. No action would be inappropriate and send out a wrong signal.
"There is a need for further improvement as indeed was recognised by Mr Malcolm."
• Stirling Council has had its 0-licence cut from 115 to 92 vehicles for six months after a public inquiry heard how two wheels had come off a vehicle-one spinning into a car park and hitting a static caravan, the other careering into a roundabout.
Aitken said1 take the wheel-loss incidents exceptionally seriously because I do not expect wheels to come off operators' vehicles."