HAULIER WAS NOT TO BLAME
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• A Midlands haulier has been absolved of any responsibility for hiring a trailer to an unlicensed owner-driver who was subsequently involved in a fatal accident (CM 13-19 Jan 1994). West Midland LA John Mervyn Pugh accepted an explanation from Bulk Freight (Midlands) that owner-driver Brian Daniels had misled both it and its insurer. He granted a licence to the company for 15 vehicles and 15 trailers based at Stoke-on-Trent.
Bulk Freight, which holds a licence for 50 trucks and 70 trailers in the eastern traffic area, had been identified in the Channel 4 programme Dispatches as the owner of a trailer involved in the accident in St Austell in 1993. But at the hearing, the company said there had been no suggestion the accident had been caused by any defect on the trailer.
Speaking for the company, Ian Rothera said Bulk Freight's system for hiring out trailers had failed because Daniels had been deceitful. The company could not treat everyone seeking to hire a trailer as a rogue operator, he said.
The company now requires copies of 0-licences before hiring out trailers.