TC drills down into tool firm’s fleet failings

Chris Tindall
October 3, 2024

A Wiltshire tool hire business with a “dreadful” MOT history has had its licence revoked after traffic commissioner Kevin Rooney said he’d struggled to find any positives in the case.

Universal Tool Hire & Supplies found itself at a Bristol PI after a maintenance investigation by the DVSA was marked unsatisfactory.

The vehicle examiner said there had been over a year between safety inspections that were supposed to be carried out at 10-weekly intervals.

There was no worthwhile brake performance testing, the driver defect reporting was unsatisfactory and the MOT failure rate was 60% against a national average of 8.6%.

The business operated as a partnership with Chris Gardner and Patrick Cuss at the helm, but Darren Gardner attended the hearing instead of Cuss due to his ill health.

They told the TC the intention was for Darren to take over responsibility for vehicle operations.

Chris said he had been undergoing treatment and so he had taken his eye off the ball. Drivers were carrying out checks but they were not recording them very well. Darren had undertaken his driver CPC and now understood more about what was required.

However, TC Rooney was unimpressed with the operation: “It is abundantly clear that vehicles have not been kept fit and serviceable,” he said.

“That is apparent from the dreadful MOT history and from the awful state of the vehicles found at the fleet check.

“I have no reason to doubt that a partner’s health issues played a part in vehicles being inspected three times in fifteen months instead of the six or seven which were committed to. “But that is not an acceptable excuse.”

The TC said that he couldn’t trust the operator to be compliant in the future and that the danger posed by the company justified putting it out of business, although he also pointed out it was possible most of its work could be conducted using a 3.5-tonne van and a 4x4 with a trailer.

He decided against disqualification but he also said the partners would have “a mountain to climb” to be granted a restricted licence in the future: “With a credible transport manager, it may be possible that they could be granted a standard licence,” he added.

“Such a licence might be required anyway given that delivery and collection is clearly a part of the operation.”

About the Author

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Chris Tindall

Chris Tindall started writing for the haulage and logistics industry in 2002 and has covered a broad range of significant issues, including GPS jamming by criminals, platooning and Brexit.

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