Defect report: check drivers
Page 31

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• At a public inquiry held in Plymouth last week the Western LA, Maj-Gen Sir John Potter, pointed out that it was a sheer waste of time for operators to give instructions to their drivers to report defects at the end of each day, if, on occasions, the drivers themselves were not checked upon to make sure that these instructions were being carried out.
Pratt and Grimley (Haulage) Ltd, of Totnes, Devon, had been called to the inquiry under Section 69, following the issuing of three immediate and three delayed prohibition notices between October 1972 and February 1973, together with convictions for overloading in February 1973 and overloading, inefficient brakes and using a vehicle while a prohibition notice was still in force, in August 1973.
In making his decision to curtail the licence from five vehicles to two for a period of three months the LA said that there were no doubt occasions when the issuing of GV9s was bad luck, but there had been a fair bit of neglect by the company in the past and he would be failing in his duty not to impose a penalty.