Vehicle maintenance problems have resulted in the 27-vehicle international licence held by Herefordshire-based Sargeants Brothers being cut initially by five vehicles and by a further two on 1 April, the latter to enable it to use the 56 days’ notice to withdraw a local service if needs be.
The firm, trading as Sargeants, of Mill Street, Kington, had been called before Traffic Commissioner (TC) Nick Denton.
Vehicle Examiner (VE) Christopher Walker reported that Managing Director and Transport Manager (TM) Michael Sargeants’ control over the maintenance systems was insufficient.
The condition of the vehicles was poor in some cases. The inspection records were not properly completed, and the planning system was inadequate. The driver defect reporting system was also unsatisfactory.
One vehicle was found in operation on a local service with a defective suspension, and on one vehicle the brake retarder wires had been disconnected and the warning light on the dashboard had been covered with black tape. On another vehicle the AdBlue and ABS warning lights were obscured. Though wheels were constantly changed due to ‘kerbing’, there was no torque record. The MoT preparation was not very good from the items on which vehicles had failed.
Mr Sargeants said that the driver of the vehicle with the defective suspension had thought it was alright to proceed on a short journey at a reduced speed as the suspension had gone down slowly.
In reply to the TC he said that they did not have written policies and he just told the drivers what to do. It was something they would have to do in the future.
When asked about the unacceptable blanking out of warning lights, he agreed that warning lights were important but said they did come on due to wiring faults. The fitter had been putting tape over lights that he could not find the reason why they were on.
The TC commented that obscuring the AdBlue light was as bad as fitting an interference device. He said: “You are putting a telescope to a blind eye. I’m amazed that you tolerated that practice.”
After Mr Sargeants had said that they were in the process of getting vehicles over to a diagnostic company to find out why the warning lights were showing, the TC pointed out that that was four months after the maintenance investigation.
Mr Sargeants said that the drivers were now all aware of what to do in regard to walk-round checks and his manager carried out audit checks. The problem had been that the fitter, who was 70 years old, was not recording all of his work. They now had an apprentice – one of his tasks was to record the work done.
He also said he would go on a TM’s refresher course and the firm’s manager was happy do a TM’s CPC course. In January he had attended a seminar for Welsh bus operators, which was very useful.
Cutting the licence, the TC required the nomination of a replacement or additional TM and the appointment of a new in-house fitter or external maintenance provider – both by 1 May.
