A West Yorkshire firm, appearing at its third public inquiry in six years, has had the hearing adjourned after a further maintenance investigation was ordered to be carried out in June. Castleford-based Kenneth Howley Transport, which holds a licence for 18 vehicles and 14 trailers, had been called before North Eastern Deputy Traffic Commissioner Patrick Mulvenna. It had appeared at previous public inquiries in 2002 and 2003. Vehicle examiner Andrew Williams said there had been four immediate and nine delayed prohibitions since March 2003, one of which was 'S' marked following a wheel-loss incident.
He carried out an unannounced maintenance investigation last July, where he examined four vehicles and issued two delayed prohibitions. There were instances where the stated inspection period had been exceeded. Defects reported by drivers had not always been signed off as rectified. All the systems were in place, but they were not working effectively. Director Kenneth Howley said that not one of the prohibitions had been 'S' marked since the example in 2004. Some inspection records damaged by a flood had not been filed, and that the two fitters employed at the time had since left. The flood was triggered by a pump failure in the nearby sewage works, which caused damage amounting to £82,000.
The vehicle that had caused concern over possible missed inspections had been sold in 2005 and repurchased in February 2007. Driver training was to take place over the next four weeks, and thereafter annually. In addition, drivers were in the process of taking an NVQ course. Audit spot checks on the daily walkround checks were now being carried out. He was pleased with the initial pass rate at annual test of 75%, although there was still room for improvement. For the company, Gary Hodgson said there was no evidence that safety inspections had been missed altogether. The company had come a long way since the licence was curtailed in 2003.
Action depends on the maintenance check
Any action taken will depend upon the extent, if any, of matters found to be wrong at the maintenance check.
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