Maintenance failures prove fatal for Deadman Confidential O-licence

An operator who failed to notice that 10 out of 10 wheel nuts were loose on one of its truck’s wheels has lost its O-licence.

Nick Denton, traffic commissioner (TC) for London and the South East, said it was only by good luck that a serious incident had been avoided by Croydon-based Deadman Confidential.

The firm lost its permission to operate HGVs on Saturday 
(8 October).

Following a public inquiry (PI) last month, which was called to consider several issues including a poor MoT pass rate and numerous prohibitions for vehicle defects, the TC said he had no confidence in the director and transport manager being able to run a compliant operation.

The PI was told that the driver did not check the wheel nuts on his daily walk-around check. The operator had also not checked the truck after a squeaking noise had been identified on daily defect reports in the days leading up to the loose wheel nuts being discovered.

DVSA evidence given at the 
PI showed that two fixed penalty notices had been issued for insecure loads, despite the company receiving advice on load security. Trucks had also not received safety inspections on time.

The shredding and waste disposal firm had also failed to monitor drivers’ hours compliance as it did not have the equipment to analyse digital tachograph records.

Denton said: “The operator has been slow to take substantive action to address many of these shortcomings.

“I have been very unimpressed today by the evidence of both the transport manager, Mr Asher, who appears out of his depth, and of director Mr Deadman, who has taken little or no responsibility for the serious mistakes that have been made on his watch.

“Because of its substantial failure, over such a range of compliance issues and over such a long period of time, and for its slow and tardy reaction to these shortcomings, revocation is an appropriate and proportionate outcome.”

• This article was published in the 6 October issue of Commercial Motor. Why not subscribe to receive 12 issues for £12?