News

Houghton le Spring, Tyne & Wear-based international haulier J F International was called before North Eastern Deputy Traffic Commissioner Elizabeth Perrett after its drivers failed to report defects. Though taking no action against the 12 vehicles and 21 trailers licence, the DTC warned that if the problem continued, particularly on the same scale, she could not rule out serious regulatory action against it.

Vehicle examiner Peter Thompson said that when a vehicle and trailer were  checked at Portsmouth, Hampshire the vehicle was given a delayed prohibition for an inoperative trailer coupling safety device and the trailer an immediate prohibition for defects including a missing ISO cable. The prohibitions were 'S' marked. There were no inspection records for the trailer and he was told it was hired out and the company believed it was the hirer's responsibility to maintain it.

The pass rate at annual test was 50% and the roadside prohibition rate 48% for vehicles and 58% for trailers, with seven immediate and 13 delayed prohibitions. He agreed the prohibitions were primarily driver related. For the company, Gary Hodgson said half the drivers were British and the rest Polish. They were away for weeks at a time on international work. External training of the drivers was being undertaken with the assistance of a Polish interpreter.

Director Jose Ferreira said the company now had duplicate inspection records for maintenance carried out in Portugal on  trailers which were with a Portuguese sub-contractor. There were English and Polish versions of the company's drivers' handbook. Transport manager Paul Mackintosh said the company had two Polish speakers in the office. Unfortunately it was very difficult to get UK based drivers and they had a big turnover of Polish drivers. The test failures were primarily for headlamp aim on left-hand drive vehicles. Hodgson said some drivers on the road making lazy mistakes had caused the problem. The prohibitions had been "silly ones".