News

A two-year history of maintenance problems, including poor defect reporting and record keeping, have resulted in the licence held by Accrington, Lancashire-based Triple C Waste & Reclamation being cut from three vehicles to two for 14 days. The company was called before North-Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner Mark Hinchliffe.

Vehicle examiner Philip Harrison said that in October 2006, he issued two vehicles with immediate prohibitions for brake defects. A full set of inspection records  was not available and the driver defect reporting system was ineffective.

In August 2007, he issued a vehicle with an immediate prohibition for loose front-axle U-bolts and an oil leak. Some inspection records were not satisfactorily completed, a vehicle hired in for longer than a month had no O-licence disc displayed and the driver defect reporting system was still a problem.

Director James Hemmingway said that when the company applied for an O-licence there was no real guidance about what it needed to do. He felt there should be a system whereby it could pay for training from Vosa. Since the vehicle examiner's visit, everything was being done correctly, he added.

The vehicles were now inspected every four weeks by Cummings Commercials, the drivers had received training in daily walk-round checks and the firm now employed a full-time fitter. He gave a series of undertakings in relation to the company's maintenance arrangements. The DTC felt that the case had  gone beyond a mere formal warning.