The company was called before the TC due to concerns over vehicle maintenance
The actions of a driver who took out a vehicle without giving it a walk-round check led to Peterlee-based North East Coachways being hauled before Traffic Commissioner (TC) Tim Blackmore.
The company, which holds an eight-vehicle International O-Licence, had been called to a Leeds Public Inquiry (PI) because of concerns over finance and vehicle maintenance.
In the event, the TC took no action other than to issue a given a formal warning. He gave the company a period of grace until 11 May to show that it has the required financial standing.
The TC said that there had been an ‘S’ marked prohibition imposed for a defective emergency door, which the DVSA considered had been of longstanding.
There was no driver defect report for that vehicle that day and the defect had not been picked up by the four weekly preventative maintenance inspections.
A follow up maintenance investigation was unsatisfactory. Inspection records were not fully completed and in one case the inspection period had been exceeded.
Director and Transport Manager (TM) Michael Pearson said that prior to the ‘S’ marked prohibition, its OCRS score had been green.
The driver of the vehicle concerned had come in late that day and had turned up without his driving licence and tacho card. He had lied to the DVSA when he had said that the vehicle had previously been used on a school run that day.
The vehicle had not been used for some time and the driver just jumped in and drove away. Mr Pearson thought that it was just a one-off incident. He had dismissed the driver concerned.
The TC commented that drivers were the key part of any maintenance system and if they were not doing it right it fell down. If a driver just jumped in a vehicle and drove away there was something wrong with the system.
After Mr Pearson had said that the company had a very good first-time pass rate at annual test, the TC commented that the MoT test was “a low bar”.
Mr Pearson said that he and the Chief Engineer had done CPC refresher courses and he had come off another operator’s O-Licence as TM, giving him more time for a personal issue.
The vehicle that had an extended inspection period had been off the road. That had been noted on the wall planner but not in the vehicle file.
The TC said that the inspection records did not show any brake test results. The first thing that the DVSA and TCs looked for were brake test results.
Admitting that they had not been doing metered brake tests despite having purchased a decelerometer last August, Mr Pearson said the premises were former National Express premises and they were currently installing a rolling road brake tester.
The facilities were the best he had seen for an operator of this size, said the TC.
Undertakings were given to have an independent external audit of the company’s systems and that the Chief Engineer and another mechanic would both go on a PSV maintenance course.
