An operator who ran seriously unroadworthy vehicles throughout the life of the licence and was “extremely negligent” in its management has been disqualified for two years.
ABC Skip Hire also had its licence revoked after traffic commissioner (TC) Nicholas Denton heard evidence of how its vehicles had been issued with four roadworthiness prohibitions from four encounters; had an MoT failure rate of 100% from nine presentations; and preventative maintenance inspections were not being carried out at the required frequency.
In addition, one vehicle had been given an S-marked prohibition for, among other things, a brake pad that was worn down to the metal and which had not been rectified.
The same vehicle had also travelled more than 1,200km on a bald tyre that had already been flagged up as needing to be replaced.
Sole director Balwinder Singh accepted the findings from the DVSA examiners and said he’d put his faith in an in-house fitter and a compliance system he’d inherited when he took over the business.
Singh’s solicitor said his client had learned a lot from the investigation and the PI process and matters would immediately be rectified and he would contract out all of his maintenance.
He also said he would be prepared to reduce the number of vehicles on his licence from six to three if the TC required it.
But Denton said it had been “screamingly obvious” that urgent corrective action was needed, but Singh had instead left the host of vehicle defects in the hands of his “clearly inadequate in-house fitter.”
He said he had no confidence in Singh’s ability to turn things around and that ABC Skip Hire deserved to go out of business:
“It has consistently over a period of almost three years sent onto the road seriously unroadworthy vehicles, posing a significant danger to the safety of other road users. It has ignored the many warning signs posted by MoT failures, prohibitions and the vehicle examiner’s shortcomings report. This is one of the worst cases of inadequate maintenance and poor vehicle condition that I have seen.”
