Licence cut after 20 years
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• A West Yorkshire haulier had his licence reduced from eight vehicles to six at his first appearance at a public inquiry in more than 20 years of operation.
Trevor Whittaker, trading as A&T Transport, of Batley, had been allied before North Eastern Deputy Traffic Commissioner Mark Hinchliffe because of concern over his maintenance standards.
DOT vehicle examiner Mark Millard told the inquiry that he examined two vehicles in an unannounced check, issuing an immediate prohibition for inoperative stop lamps.
Few inspection records were available, he added, and some inspection frequencies exceeded four months.
There had been little or no change since Whittaker had been sent a warning letter following an unsatisfactory fleet check in February 1996. Millard agreed with Gary Hodgson, for Whittaker, that defects listed on prohibitions issued in 1996 and 1997 were not serious defects showing a neglect of maintenance: Whittaker's annual test history was very good.
Whittaker said he was in the process of reducing the age of what was an elderly fleet. One of the problems with maintenance was that he had owed his original maintenance contractor money and his vehicles were put to the back of the queue.
Whittaker has since changed maintenance contractors. A number of records had gone missing following a break-in, he said. He added that a lot of the strain over finance had been removed over the past 12 months.
After financial evidence was heard in private Hinchliffe said that Whittaker seemed to have got his act together again.