News

The licence held by Rotherham-based Motorfast Distribution Services, which entered administration in May, has been revoked, and one of its two directors, John Bailey, disqualified from holding an O-licence for six months. 

North Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner (DTC) Mark Hinchliffe heard that this was the second company Bailey had run that had gone into administration. Plus he had failed to disclose that Motorfast Distribution had gone into administration when applying for a licence  for sister firm Motorfast Storage and Distribution, which he formed in March 2008 to "to separate the storage from the haulage side".

Bailey maintained that Motorfast Distribution had not gone into administration when the new application was made, saying he had made an error in the date he entered on the form. Former employee Carla Rainbow said that in April she was asked to change the name on the invoices to the storage company.

Bailey subsequently asked her whether she would like to buy the company. She and her partner Martin Hayes, also a former employee, agreed to buy the business and its assets, but not the Motorfast name, and set up Nytrack Distribution to do just that.

Nytrack took over Motorfast's Pallet Network contract, subcontracting the work in the short term to Simple Transport. The vehicles were put on that company's licence, which had authorisation for 30 vehicles.

The DTC said that he was not happy with that arrangement. Nytrack employed  the drivers and it appeared to be a device to get round the refusal to grant Nytrack an interim licence.

He would be asking VOSA to have a look at Simple Transport in case they had a large unused margin, but granted Nytrack a licence of its own for 15 vehicles and eight trailers.

Meanwhile, Bailey claimed the licence application for Motorfast Distribution and Storage is being withdrawn as it is no longer trading and said he has no immediate plans to seek an O-licence in the future.