12 weeks to find new transport manager
Page 23
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Doncasterbased FK Freight Services, trading as GT Sykes Transport, has been given 12 weeks in which to find a new transport manager.
North Eastern DLA Mark Hinchliffe. ruled that its present transport manager, Graham Sykes, no longer met the good repute requirement because of the falsification of tachograph records and breaches of the drivers hours rules while running Gemantec, which traded in the same name. Hinchliffe also suspended Sykes' WV driving licence for 10 weeks.
Traffic examiner Trevor Barton said he had discovered many abuses by Sykes and four drivers while they travelled between the UK and Italy.
Vehicles had been running with the tachograph head open and lines had been drawn on some charts in an attempt to show the vehicle at rest when in fact it was running. There were instances of running without a chart in the tachograph.
On one occasion Sykes had been on duty for 33 hours 25 minutes, with 30 hours four minutes driving time. If a clock wind-back of four hours 45 minutes was added, it meant Sykes had been continuously on duty for 38 hours 10 minutes. William Brunskill, a director of FK Freight, said his involvement with Getnantec had been the provision of vehicles under contract hire. When Gemantec went into liquidation he took over the contracts and employed Sykes as transport manager.
Sykes said Gemantec had run into severe financial difficulties as a result of bad debts. He had secured a lucrative contract carrying from Italy The prohibition on moving at the weekend on the Continent put him under pressure to deliver on time, as they could not stay in Italy over the weekend be cause of security problems when carrying leather coats and shoes. He had been fined £.5,000 by Scunthorpe Magistrates for falsifying tachograph charts. He still owed the bank £3,000 and if he lost his LGV licence he would not be able to obtain another job and the bank would repossess his home.
He agreed that as his drivers had been paid a percentage of what their vehicles earned it had been been an incentive for them to break the law.
Hinchliffe said the role of a transport manager involved drivers hours and tachographs. It was quite inconceivable that a man who had done what Sykes had could be regarded as being of good repute in relation to being a transport manager.