TC gives skip operator a chance to get it right
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11 A Merseyside skip operator who was unable to attend a disciplinary inquiry after falling off a lorry has had two of his five vehicles suspended for six months.
Bootle-based Victor Martin, trading as Qwik Skips/A&M Reclaim, had been called before the North Western Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell.
Vehicle examiner Peter Turner said seven immediate and two delayed prohibitions had been imposed on Martin's vehicles since March 1996. He examined three vehicles in October, issuing one immediate and one delayed prohibition and two defect notices.
The inspection records were not of an acceptable type and were not properly completed. The declared inspection period of six to eight weeks was being extended, with gaps of up to 28 weeks. There was no regular pattern to the inspections on a wall chart, and the driver defect reporting system was ineffective.
He added that Martin subsequently produced a new wall planner with inspections planned at six-weekly intervals, and a memo sent to drivers pointing out their responsibilities. Martin had told him the drivers had now been issued with duplicate defect report books.
He agreed that some variation notices had been issued when vehicles were produced for prohibition clearance, and that six of the prohibitions were for safety-critical items.
For Martin, Jonathan Backhouse said it was not suggested that maintenance had not been carried out. Where there were gaps in the maintenance schedule it was because the vehicles concerned were not being used. The maintenance contractors had been instructed to use a more suitable inspection sheet.
Curtailing the licence to three vehicles for six months, the TC said it was only because Martin had started to put things right that she was not revoking the licence. "A rag stuffed into a fuel tank in place of a filler cap is not professional and gives the industry a bad name," she remarked. "I am giving this operator one opportunity to put his house in order."