Dear Mr Traffic Commissioner...
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With reference to your V V report in Legal News (CM14-20 May), this is for the attention of Deputy TC Brian Horner.
I tried my utmost to stay legal in the transport industry, but owing to your shortsightedness in this field, you would not understand what the small haulier is up against.
Let me enlighten you. Hauliers in the UK are paid the lowest rates in Europe. That's assuming they get paid at all by some of the cowboys that are out there.
But an 0-licence would not protect me from these people and guarantee that I get paid; neither would it make my trucks run any better. I have always maintained my trucks within the law, except on one occasion when I bought my first truck and it was stopped and found to have' a leaking actuator (that, by the way, is a rubber diaphragm which sometimes goes, causing an air leak to a brake chamber).
Considering the average truck has 12 brake chambers, having one which is leaking could not possibly be classed as causing defective brakes.
In any case, if air was being lost at an excessive rate it would cause the vehicle's brakes to lock on, therefore the truck could not be moved, rendering the vehicle incapable of being a danger to anyone.
Anyhow, my trucks still run and will continue to do so. Your piece of paper in my windscreen won't make them run any better. In fact my advice to you and your whole transport department is to stick all your Operator's Licences and officialdom where the sun don't shine. Paul Ellis, Freightmate International, Takeley, Essex.