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North Western Traffic Commissioner Keith Waterworth at a Leeds disciplinary inquiry when Bootlebased Rule Main, trading as CS Transport, appeared before him because of concern over vehicle maintenance and the payment of VED. The company held an international licence for six vehicles and seven trailers. Director Chris Sweeney said the other director, his father Charles, had retired as he could no longer face the job.
DOT vehicle examiner Alan Barnes said that in February he examined three vehicles and three trailers, issuing an immediate prohibition to a trailer for brake-related defects.
Inspection records could not be produced for the past 15 months as required, and the records that were produced appeared to show that the declared inspection period had not been adhered to. Of the 15 prohibitions issued to the company's vehicles and trailers in the past five years, five immediate and two delayed prohibitions had been issued since November 1996. The operating centre appeared too small and some trailers were being parked in the street.
Barnes agreed with Sweeney that the vehicles and trailers he had seen in February had been in good condition.
Sweeney said he was in the process of buying land so the company's base could be extended. The TC reminded Sweeney that it was illegal to park outside the operating centre and he expected to see the vehicles and trailers parking within the operating centre in the meantime. Sweeney said two vehicles said to be untaxed were no longer in use.
Pointing out that out-of-court settlements had been paid in relation to two vehicles, Waterworth said VED payment had been a bit slipshod and a ramshackle exercise. Sweeney assured the TC that the four vehicles currently operated were all properly taxed. He said that some of the gaps in the maintenance records were explained by vehicles being laid up when work fell off.
The TC had commented that 15 prohibitions in five years on a fleet of that size was an appalling record: Sweeney replied that the prohibition rate had slowed down since he had taken over the reins.