Licence hacked after 'third party' defence
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A RAFT OF maintenance, hours and tachograph offences have led to a newly-established Welsh operator having its licence more than halved.
Tenby-based Zed Ten Caravans & Transport, set up last year to transport static caravans, has had its licence cut from nine vehicles and four trailers to four vehicles and one trailer because of numerous offences. Its defence — that maintenance was carried out by a third party — unsurprisingly failed to save it from action.
At a Neath disciplinary inquiry Welsh Deputy Traffic Commissioner Alan Jenkins was told that defects had been found on vehicles during two maintenance checks, including brake faults, exhaust leaks, inoperative speed limiters and a worn tyre. More than 700 tachograph records had been examined and a great number of offences discovered, including excessive hours, insufficient rest and mode switch misuse. One vehicle had been based at an unauthorised operating centre in the West Country for three months. No tachograph records were available for that vehicle nor any record for a fuel gauge being repaired, despite being reported faulty on a number of occasions. Zed Ten director Ryan Ennis said that it had been let down by its original maintenance contractor. "We were paying top money but not getting top service," he said. Maintenance was now being undertaken by a David Saunders at Strawberry Farm, where Zed Ten proposed to base its operating centre.
Cutting the licence.but granting the change of operating centre, the DTC said that he had been impressed by the systems which were now in place. But the number of prohibitions in less than a year was quite dramatic. He accepted that the maintenance failures were due to the original contractor but stressed that this did not relieve the company of its obligations.