News

An operator that played hard to get when approached by Vosa and the Traffic Area Office has lost its O-licence. The company director had claimed to be "frightened" by such approaches and had chosen to ignore them.

North Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner Mark Hinchliffe revoked the two-vehicle licence held by D&S Services (Atherton), holding that both the company and its transport manager, Peter Churnside, had lost their repute. Neither the company nor Churnside appeared before  the DTC.

Vehicle examiner Stephen Brock said that he had experienced great difficulty in contacting the company to carry out a maintenance investigation. When he did manage to do so, director Sean Eckersley said that he had received the telephone messages and letters, but had just panicked and filed them away, being frightened. The maintenance issues were quite minor, but the problem was getting hold of Eckersley.

Brock said he had not met Churnside and Eckersley had been on the defensive the whole time. The DTC said the company also failed to respond to letters from the Traffic Area Office (TAO).

On the day of the hearing, TAO staff tried to contact the company without success. They had spoken to Eckersley's brother-in-law at the operating centre, the premises of T Hill Transport, and had been told that Eckersley was aware of the public inquiry. A company search had revealed that Companies House was proposing to strike the company off.

The partnership between  the industry, TCs and Vosa depended upon co-operation. There had been a wilful failure and the company had shown an unwillingness to participate in the O-licensing regime.