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The Eastern Area licence held by West Drayton, London-based Rex Haulage has been revoked for the second time and its bid for a new licence in the Western Area has been turned down. The company was appearing before Eastern Area Traffic Commissioner Tom Macartney. The person in control of the business, Mohinder Singh Grewal, was using his son and daughter as a front and the company had been running from an unauthorised operating centre since the beginning of last year.

Last October the then  Eastern Traffic Commissioner Geoffrey Simms revoked the company's licence for four vehicles and four trailers he also disqualified the company from holding an O-licence indefinitely and disqualified its then sole director Jaspreet Grewal, daughter of Mohinder Singh Grewal, for a period of three years.  An appeal against that decision was allowed by the Transport Tribunal when they sent the case back for further consideration. The company subsequently submitted an application for a two-vehicle licence based at Slough in the Western Traffic Area.

Director and transport manager Tavinderjit Singh Grewal told TC Tom Macartney that operation from Slough had started in January or February 2006, and that the company was his business. He said that originally his father Mohinder Singh Grewal had passed the business to his sister Jaspreet and she in turn had passed it on to him, stepping down as a director. He denied that the company was a front for his father but admitted that the Western  Area application had been triggered by the October 2006 public inquiry.

Mohinder Singh Grewal said that in June 2005 the company was required to move from its West Drayton site and the vehicles were parked at the Heston service area. Two vehicles were set on fire there in autumn 2005. That led to a move to Slough early in 2006. He had sold the business to his children before Christmas 2006 but no money changed hands. He was not a director or shareholder and he had surrendered his own licence in April 2006.

In addition to revoking the Eastern licence and refusing the Western application, the TC disqualified the company from holding a licence indefinitely Jaspreet Grewal was disqualified for five years and Tervinderjit Singh Grewal for three years. In doing so the TC said the Slough operating centre had been used without authority for a considerable time and was still being used. It was clear that Jaspreet Grewal was not in control of the transport operation. Her brother's knowledge was very limited and he deferred to his father in a number of areas in the way in which the business was being run, the history and the operation of the business. It was evident that it was his father who mainly knew what was going on and had regular control.